{"id":78103,"date":"2024-07-17T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T09:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=78103"},"modified":"2024-07-17T09:00:42","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T09:00:42","slug":"german-state-moves-3-billion-in-bitcoin-seized-from-pirate-site-operators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=78103","title":{"rendered":"German State Moves $3 Billion in Bitcoin Seized From Pirate Site Operators"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"movie2k\"At the start of the 2010s, Movie2k<\/a> was one of the most visited sites on the web. <\/p>\n

The site was an early adopter of pirate streaming and at its peak, secured a spot among the twenty most-visited websites in Germany, beating Twitter and Amazon.<\/p>\n

Movie2k\u2019s success generated a healthy revenue stream which its operators converted to a new and exciting \u2018currency\u2019 called Bitcoin. It\u2019s assumed that the goal was to keep the haul hidden from prying eyes. That initially appeared to work well, but it didn\u2019t last. <\/p>\n

The Movie2k reign came to an end in 2013<\/a>, when the site mysteriously went offline. The site\u2019s closure fueled suspicion of legal issues, which was eventually confirmed years later<\/a> when German police announced several arrests.<\/p>\n

Arrests and Bitcoin Seizures<\/h2>\n

The arrests resulted in numerous convictions over the years and in 2020 the authorities also seized 2,700 bitcoins. However, this number pales in comparison to the amount that was confiscated earlier this year as part of an ongoing prosecution.<\/p>\n

Following an investigation carried out by the Dresden General Prosecutor\u2019s Office, the Saxony State Criminal Police, together with the local tax authority (INES), in January nearly 50,000 bitcoins<\/a> were seized. At today\u2019s exchange rate the haul is worth more than $3 billion.<\/p>\n

Never before has this much Bitcoin been secured by German authorities; it was also one of the largest crypto hauls worldwide. According to the police report, the defendant agreed to voluntarily hand over the cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

Saxony Moves all Seized Bitcoin<\/h2>\n

Legally, and from a risk perspective, the German state of Saxony<\/a> can\u2019t hold the Bitcoin indefinitely. The coins had to start moving by the end of June, and that\u2019s when the first outward transfers were recorded. <\/p>\n

The Bitcoin transfers have been closely tracked by Arkham<\/a> which provided updates of all notable transactions. While it\u2019s clear that the funds were moving, it doesn\u2019t automatically mean they were instantly sold. <\/p>\n

Over the past couple of weeks, the state of Saxony moved all of its Bitcoin to external parties. The latest transfers were completed a few days ago, bringing the wallet balance to zero<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"zero\"<\/center><\/p>\n

The authorities haven\u2019t commented on the transfers and alleged selling. The coins went to various third-parties including exchanges such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp, as well as Flow Traders and Cumberland, which operate as market makers. <\/p>\n

Bitcoin Storytelling and Donations<\/h2>\n

As is often the case on financial markets, these types of events are often used to explain price movements. So, when the Bitcoin price started to drop, several reports hinted<\/a> that the German \u2018selloff\u2019 could be responsible. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to confirm a link between the two events without further information. However, the Bitcoin price rebounded over the past week while Saxony was moving out more and more Bitcoin; that\u2019s the opposite effect for a similar \u2018selloff\u2019. <\/p>\n

At this point, it\u2019s clear that the German state is liquidating the Bitcoin assets seized from the former operator of Movie2k. Interestingly, however, the wallet\u2019s assets are not completely zero, as some people decided to donate a few extra Satoshi<\/a> to the account, which currently holds $421.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Bitcoin haul\u2019s previous owner is likely to have witnessed recent events in disbelief; the value of the \u2018coins\u2019 when first stashed away was just a few dollars each.<\/p>\n

In April this year, the defendant heard the charges<\/a> he\u2019s facing, which include unauthorized commercial exploitation of copyrighted works and commercial money laundering. He will be sentenced at a later date. <\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the start of the 2010s, Movie2k was one of the most visited sites on the web. The site was an early adopter of pirate streaming and at its peak, secured a spot among the twenty most-visited websites in Germany, beating Twitter and Amazon. Movie2k\u2019s success generated a healthy revenue stream which its operators converted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/78104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}