@daily_btc_lore | Daily Bitcoin History Threads

July 5, 2024 | 2 years ago today

The Law That Forced Germany to Sell 50,000 BitcoinThe Law That Forced Germany to Sell 50,000 Bitcoin

The coins came from a piracy site. A legal rule required selling them before they lost 10% of their value. Five months later, Bitcoin crossed $100,000 for the first time.

The StashThe Stash

The bitcoin traced back to Movie2k.to, a pirate movie streaming site shut down in 2013. Its operators had parked the profits in Bitcoin, and in January 2024 one of them voluntarily handed nearly 50,000 BTC to Saxony police as part of the criminal proceedings. It was the largest seizure in German history, worth about $2.2 billion at the time.

The RuleThe Rule

Then German law took over. Seized assets at risk of losing 10% or more of their value before trial concludes must be sold in a Notveraeusserung, an emergency sale. Bitcoin's volatility triggered the rule automatically. Saxony was not permitted to hold the coins, and the proceeds would not even belong to the state yet: sale revenue sits in escrow until the criminal case is finally decided.

The SaleThe Sale

From June 19 to July 12, 2024, the Dresden public prosecutor's office and Saxony's crypto custody unit sold the stash through the trading firm Bankhaus Scheich and major exchanges. Arkham had labeled the government wallet, so the entire market watched every move in real time. Its trackers logged $220.7 million in outflows on July 5 alone as Bitcoin fell below $55,000 to four-month lows (news.bitcoin.com/german-government-sells-220-7m-in-bitcoin-retains-1-3b-reserve).

The ObjectionsThe Objections

A day earlier, Bundestag member Joana Cotar had sent an open letter urging Berlin to stop the "hasty" sale and hold Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, inviting officials to a lecture on Bitcoin strategies for nation states. Tron founder Justin Sun publicly offered to buy the entire stash off-market to minimize the price impact. Saxony kept selling.

The TallyThe Tally

Final numbers from the Dresden prosecutor: 49,858 BTC sold for 2.639 billion euros, an average of 52,944 euros per coin. On December 5, 2024, Bitcoin crossed $100,000 for the first time. By the December peak, the coins Germany had sold for roughly $2.9 billion were worth more than $5.3 billion.

The EpilogueThe Epilogue

In March 2025, the United States began keeping forfeited bitcoin in a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve instead of auctioning it, the approach Cotar had urged on Berlin eight months earlier. At today's prices the Movie2k coins would be worth about $3.1 billion, still more than Saxony realized. The rule behind the sale was written to prevent a 10% loss.

Part of an ongoing series on Bitcoin history. This event falls on July 5, 2024.