cryptovibes.com
Frankfurt prosecutors based in the German state of Hesse have cleaned out $113 million worth of cryptocurrencies seized from three drug traffickers earlier this year.
The prosecutors decided in a bid to return the illegal crypto assets to regular circulation. Frankfurt’s General Public Prosecutor’s Office and the State of Hesse signed a long-term agreement with Bankhaus Scheich Wertpapierspezialist AG to sell the confiscated crypto and return them to the market.
The agreement also sets the precedence for future confiscation of cryptocurrencies from illegal holders and how to resell them to the public.
The Crypto Assets Have Been Cleaned
Bankhaus Scheich stated that the crypto assets were acquired through criminal activities, and are therefore considered “contaminated coins”. This means they cannot be traded on mainstream exchanges.
But the prosecutors have established an exclusive system that processes the transactions, informing trading partners that the dirty tokens are not legally admitted into the market.
Senior Public Prosecutor Jana Ringwald stated that crypto assets have become a means of payment for cybercrime. As a result, their confiscation and exploitation require a professional approach. She added that a legally secure and market-oriented solution has been developed by the Frankfurt prosecution office, which is distinctive in Germany so far. The idea for the solution is to ensure that the cryptocurrencies derived from criminal means are returned to the regulator market by following a legally acceptable approach.
A Reoccurring Process
German authorities have resorted to a unique approach to deal with their confiscated cryptocurrencies in the past, so it may not come as a surprise to many. Two months ago, the Justice Ministry in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia auctioned a large sum of confiscated Bitcoin at a discounted price. At the time, Bitcoin was rallying around $62,000, but the authorities set the price at $49,000.
Crypto assets like Bitcoin always leave a digital footprint on the blockchain. Although it operates under a decentralized network, it can still be easily identifiable if they have been used for any form of criminal activity in the past. As a result, investors or traders would want to stay clear of these tokens, making them very difficult to be integrated into the market. What the regulators did was to “clean” the tainted crypto assets and make them legal for transactions again.