German authorities put confiscated bitcoins worth more than US$12 million up for auction

While many legitimate investors are currently flocking to the surging crypto market in order to invest in digital currencies like Bitcoin, some criminals apparently also prefer to abuse cryptocurrencies for illegal transactions since they probably make it more difficult to trace and prosecute them. This is why German authorities occasionally seize bitcoins, which by law have to be auctioned instead of just being converted into the traditional European currency. According to a report by a reputable German news outlet, such a crypto auction took place this Monday in North Rhine-Westphalia, where the authorities put bitcoins worth more than US$12 million up for sale.

In this case, the bitcoins were confiscated when law enforcement uncovered an illegal online drug trade in the dark web. For security reasons, the authorities opted to print these bitcoins on paper and seal them in envelopes. However, storing crypto by printing private keys and bitcoin addresses on paper is known to be unsafe, which is why the winners of this auction should be advised to transfer their new bitcoin to another wallet, like the Ledger Nano S hardware crypto wallet (from US$59 on Amazon) for example.

Bargain hunters who are interested in acquiring crypto should not get too excited, because the bid price of the aforementioned auction in Germany quickly exceeded the current value of said bitcoins. But since the authorities in Germany's most populous state have already seized an additional US$14.5 million worth of bitcoins, it is quite likely that there will be more unusual crypto auctions in Germany in the future.