Russia is reportedly set to sell nearly $10 million worth of bitcoin (BTC) that it seized from a former researcher. A judge has authorized the conversion of these assets into state revenue, with the total seizure exceeding 2,700 BTC, making it the largest seizure recorded in that country so far.
According to TASS news agency, the Russian government has begun converting Bitcoin holdings into state revenue. The BTC funds were held by Marat Tambiev, a former member of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, sentenced to 16 years in prison.
In October 2024, Tambiev was found guilty of accepting a bribe from a hacking group called Infraud. According to authorities, prosecutors found hundreds of BTC on his computer and storage devices.
He is now serving his sentence in a maximum-security penal colony. He was also fined 500 million rubles (nearly $5 million) and stripped of his rank.
Despite the fact that it is 2,700 BTC, the bailiffs were granted permission to convert 1,032 BTC into state property. However, this has been complicated by legal hurdles, as Tambiev appears to have split the coins into several smaller amounts. Meaning the bailiffs will have to file separate court rulings to grant Moscow access to the coins.
Russian prosecutors also believe there are bitcoins stored in a Ledger Nano X hardware wallet. They also believe that Tambiev may have passed some of these assets on to family members.
The sum of 1,032 BTC, currently valued at over $98 million, represents a logistical and legal challenge for Russian authorities. The conversion of these digital assets not only raises questions about the regulation and handling of cryptocurrencies in legal contexts, but also opens a debate on how states should proceed in similar cases in the future.
As part of the ordinance, the Russian state is receiving the funds in bitcoin as state property. However, it is not clear whether they will be sold or, instead, kept by that country. This, remembering that Russia has a favorable stance towards BTC.
This plausible sale of BTC seized by Russia is reminiscent of the case in the United States this week, when a court authorized the Department of Justice to sell almost 70,000 bitcoin that were seized from the fallen marketplace Silk Road.
So far, the sale of Silk Road bitcoins has not been executed. The wallet, which is now under FBI control, has not shown any outgoing movements as shown on-chain. This indicates that the movement of these funds could still be in the planning stages or simply pending completion.
This uncertainty has the Bitcoin community in a state of anticipation, closely watching every potential development. The expectation is to understand how this sale could affect the cryptocurrency market, considering the volume of BTC involved and the impact it could have once the transaction finally takes place, if it ever happens.
