The German authorities have just made almost $14 million in a so-called "emergency" sale, according to a Monday report in the Tagesspiegel newspaper. The venture was agreed upon after the Bavarian justice treasury expressed concerns over the severe volatility of digital assets, which, in common with food, cars and other items that depreciate in value, are typically offered in special "emergency" sales.
The sold cryptocurrencies, including 1,312 Bitcoins, 1,399 Bitcoin Cash tokens and 220 Ether were seized during a crackdown on LuL.to, an illegal seller of copyrighted e-books and audiobooks. After their website was blocked last year, the assets streamed to a law enforcement fund.
The selloff of seized assets, which is Germany’s biggest to date, started in late February, when Bitcoin’s value had abruptly dipped after a record high of almost $20,000 at the end of 2017. Its value then went below $7,000 and then climbed up to $9,000.
In a similar move last autumn, the US Justice Department received a whopping $48 million from the sale of Bitcoin obtained from Ross "Dread Pirate Roberts" Ulbricht, broadly known as the operator of the Silk Road online drug market.
According to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, the value of bitcoin has slumped by roughly 21 percent since last month to reach $7,352, as of today, whereas second-biggest crypto-asset Ethereum now stands at $551.10 per coin, which is 20 percent cheaper than last month. Bitcoin Cash currently trades at $977 per coin, 30 percent down since late April.
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