Finnish authorities don’t know what to do with seized crypto

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Updated on Mar 11, 2020

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Finland's authorities are reportedly sitting on around $15 million worth of BTC, refusing to liquidate the assets.
According to the country's government, doing so would return the money to the market, and they fear that the coins would find their way back to criminal hands.
Many other countries have seized major amounts of BTC as well over the years, such as the US, but most are simply selling the coins in auctions.

Battling financial crimes over the past decade has led to a lot of countries’ governments to confiscate massive amounts of cryptocurrencies. With no real idea regarding what to do with the seized coins, governments have either locked them away or sold them in auctions in order to make some use of them and earn a bit of money in the process.

However, when it comes to Finnish authorities, they refuse to do so, which has led to them sitting on millions of dollars in Bitcoin, and still no idea as to what to do with them.

The coins were confiscated from criminals several years ago, but the government hesitates to sell them due to fears that the couis would simply return to the criminal hands, rendering their past efforts useless.

The country’s local media outlets reported that the Finnish Customs Service currently owns around 1,666 BTC, all of which was seized from drug dealers. The operation(s) during which the coins were seized was not specified, but it is known that the amount was worth around $760,000 at the time. These days, the same coins are worth over $15 million.

How to deal with the seized Bitcoins?

As mentioned, the government does not want to return the coins to the market, despite numerous studies that have shown that the excuse about the coins only being used for criminal purposes are lacking evidence. This is especially true these days, as adoption by merchants continues to spread, and people around the world are using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies legally.

But, the authorities appear to be standing by their past decision even now, and that goes far beyond just Bitcoin. They also refuse to liquidate other types of assets, including vehicles, real estate, and more.

To many, the solution seems simple — record the transactions, wallet addresses, and exchange activities, and so the coins will never be able to disappear without a trace. Many other governments are already applying this method to track the coins, but, for now, at least, Finland remains hesitant to do the same.