Bitcoin Seized From the Darknet Draws Interest of 110 countries

The February 28th auction of Bitcoin seized from the drug dealers on darknet drew the interest of buyers from 110 countries. The auction was conducted by Belgian Police through the Wilsons auction house which lasted for 24-hours and saw a total of 315 BTC being successfully sold-off.

Out of the total 315 coins consisted of 104.99 each of bitcoin core, bitcoin cash, and bitcoin gold. The total amount generated through the auction rounded off to $420,000. The auction was conducted by Irish auction house Wilsons

The confiscated cryptocurrencies were sold in the lots ranging from 0.5 BTC to 4 BTC, while the reserves of Bitcoin cash and Bitcoin gold were sold in higher quantity given the lower price tag they carry in comparison to Bitcoin.

The Belgian Police Darknet Crackdown

The seized Bitcoin were confiscated by Belgian police authority from two drug-dealing brothers over the darknet. The brothers belonged to the city of Antwerp and they were selling illegal substances over the darknet in exchange of cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin.

Before the current auction, Belgian police had also reportedly confiscated large sums of Bitcoin from the darknet amounting to 1005 BTC back in 2017. However at that time, there were no crypto regulations or laws defining the use of the digital asset in the country, and this is the reason authorities could not liquidate the seized funds or auction it. Now that the government has put some regulations in place, we can expect more such auctions in the coming days.

Cryptocurrencies Privacy Features make it a Perfect Entity of use for Criminals

The first noted use of cryptocurrency started on the darknet marketplaces, the reason being the privacy and anonymity features of the digital assets make it a perfect tool for the use in illegal activities.

Aidan Larkin, head of the asset recovery at Wilsons said,

“Following huge investment into our systems and infrastructure, we are able to offer government and law enforcement agencies worldwide a secure solution to the ever-increasing problem of seized cryptocurrencies.”

He went on to add that the Belgian authorities have allowed the auction house to expand its expand their cryptocurrency offering, in order to remove the risk associated with trading crypto on unregulated exchanges.

Final Thoughts

The decentralization aspect of crypto along with the privacy features make it a perfect choice for criminals. However, Fiat still plays a major role in money laundering and criminal activities, thus blaming crypto for promoting or encouraging criminal use is the only half side of the story. Every year large corporate banks are fined in billion for helping the criminals launder their crime money to make it white.

The Belgian government’s approach is a clear example of how regulations not only promote the use of cryptocurrencies but also put certain law and regulations in place which would help the consumers in recovering their digital assets in case of theft or other criminal activities.