The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has reached $100,000 and some in Germany are crying foul. In mid-2024, the government of that country decided to sell the 50,000 BTC it had seized for alleged criminal activities, passing up the opportunity to obtain higher returns or create a reserve of that asset.
The selling strategy began on June 19 and ended on July 12, when the price of bitcoin was $57,501. The authorities of the federal state of Saxony, in Germany, began the procedure of selling BTC to exchanges following the criteria established in article 111p of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
In this context, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) explained that it cannot retain digital assets obtained through criminal activities and therefore decided to sell them when the related case was concluded. For this reason, they waited almost 6 months to part with the BTC.
BTC inflows and outflows in the German government wallet. Source: bitcointreasuries.
At the time of the seizure, the BTC was trading at around $43,400. In other words, the 50,000 BTC were worth $2 billion.
Now, with BTC above $100,000, the question arises: How much money did Germany miss out on from earning its bitcoin?
According to Germany's Bitcoin Regret Meter, a real-time calculator, the amount of money Germany lost by selling bitcoin too early is more than $2 billion.
In total, Germany received around $2.9 billion from its sales, but if it had maintained its position, that sum would have been almost $5 billion.
Bitcoin is now a six-figure financial asset. Source: CoinGecko.
Criticism for BTC sales
Saxony's state broadcaster MDR made it clear that the criminal code states that seized goods can be sold "if there is a risk that they will be damaged or suffer a significant loss of value.” This could have been used to their advantage to not part with those BTC.
However, under the guidance of the public prosecutor in Dresden, the capital of Saxony, the authorities initiated an “emergency sale” for fear that the asset in question could depreciate by 10% or more. This action left the country without a reserve asset currently valued at more than 2 billion dollars.
Under these criteria, the Public Prosecutor's Office of the city of Dresden, capital of Saxony, proceeded to launch an "emergency sale", a mechanism that is activated when it is feared that the asset in question will depreciate by 10% or more.
In this context, the Bitcoiner and German MP Joana Cotar cried out and warned that Germany had gotten rid of a treasure in BTC and lost the opportunity to launch a state plan to take advantage of the benefits of digital currencies.
Joana Cotar criticized German authorities for selling seized BTC. Source: YouTube/Joana Cotar.
The legislator explained that under her country's laws there was no obligation to sell the seized BTC. According to her interpretation of the law, if the authorities had not declared the emergency, they could have kept their treasure and implemented an investment strategy once the criminal case was closed. "It's all due to ignorance," Cotar said.
Shee added: “Instead of holding bitcoin as a strategic reserve currency, as is already being discussed in the US, our government is selling it on a massive scale.” In this regard, it is worth remembering that the creation of a strategic BTC reserve was one of the promises made by Donald Trump that has resonated most in the Bitcoin community.
