Finnish customs officials have been forced to call it a "Hodler", and the amount of bitcoin seized has risen by 2,000%

Finnish government stumped by 1,666 bitcoins forced to become hodler

Source: babbitt

While some governments have chosen to sell bitcoin confiscated through law enforcement, Finland has yet to decide what to do with the seized assets.

Customs agencies affiliated with Finland's finance ministry have been considering what to do with 1,666 bitcoins seized from drug traffickers several years ago, Finnish media reported yesterday.

Finnish customs officials do not want to auction confiscated bitcoins because it could cause them to re-enter the hands of criminals.

Bitcoin seized in Finland has risen by 2,000 percent.

According to the report, the seized COINS were worth less than 700,000 euros, or about $760,000, at the time. As of press time, 1,666 bitcoins were worth 14.09 million euros, or more than 15.2 million dollars. The agency reportedly initially planned to auction the funds in 2018, but chose to hold on because of concerns about aml.

Pekka Pylkkanen, director of finance at the Finnish customs agency, said cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are mainly used for illegal activities:

"In our view, these issues are specifically related to the risk of money laundering. In addition to holding more than $15 million in bitcoins, Finnish customs seized and held millions of euros worth of competing COINS, the report said.

& have spent

The U.S. lost $1.7 billion when it auctioned off bitcoin too early.

Whatever the reasons behind Finland's customs decision to hold the seized cryptocurrency, the country is clearly not alone in believing that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be more dangerous than cash in terms of money laundering. In July 2019, U.S. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed deep skepticism about bitcoin, arguing that cash is laundered differently than bitcoin.

Meanwhile, the U.S. doesn't seem to care that much about profiting from hoarding bitcoin. On Feb. 18, the U.S. marshals service sold another batch of bitcoins confiscated during an enforcement operation. According to data compiled by Jameson Lopp, a leading cryptography expert, the marshals service lost more than $1.7 billion selling seized bitcoins too early.

According to Lopp, the agency has confiscated and sold 185,230 bitcoins.

Original address:https://www.8btc.com/article/560507

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