The Finnish Customs Service is resolving the issue of confiscated BTCs worth $15 million. The Service fears that if sold, they could end up in the hands of criminals.
The Finnish Customs has been trying to sell a total of 1666 BTCs for several years, and in September 2018 it even developed a plan for a public auction of crypto. But officials have concerns that the sale will attract the attention of criminals and may even jeopardize the security of the agency. Customs Service Director Pekka Pylkkanen said in an interview with local media:
"From our point of view, the problems are related to the risk of money laundering. Users of cryptographic software rarely use them for normal shopping".
In 2016, the Finnish Customs Service confiscated bitcoins and other assets worth €1 million as part of a raid on the Valhalla darknet market. At the time, the BTC was trading at about $570, i.e. 1666 BTCs were worth about $950,000. At the same time, now the price of BTC is about $9,000, and all available Bitcoins — almost $15 million.
Not only the Finnish Customs Service is trying to decide what to do with confiscated BTCs, which have greatly increased in price. The U.S. government, which has seized BTCs worth hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, has organized several online auctions to sell them. The last such auction was held this month, where Bitcoins were sold for $37.7 million.
A year ago, the independent auction house Wilsons Auctions sold cryptographic currency worth £300,000 seized by the Belgian government in a case of drug trafficking through the Darknet.
In 2018, the Finnish government banned the sale of confiscated BTCs on stock exchanges or trading floors to Customs officials. The Agency is required to store any confiscated digital assets in a cold wallet and to sell them exclusively through auctions.
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