German authorities may have missed a very large stash of Bitcoin linked to the old piracy website Movie2K.
A report released on Friday by crypto research company Arkham Intelligence said more than 45,000 Bitcoin are still sitting in wallets connected to the site. At today’s price of around $111,000 per coin, that stash is worth close to $5 billion.
Arkham explained that the coins are “connected to earlier Movie2K movements and addresses.” It also said, “This is most likely still under the control of the Movie2K operators.” The coins have not been moved since 2019 and are stored in over 100 separate wallets.
In January 2024, German police had already taken control of nearly 50,000 Bitcoin linked to Movie2K. Two men under investigation for running the site gave the coins to police during the case.
Prosecutors later called it “the most comprehensive seizure of Bitcoin by law enforcement agencies” in Germany. By mid-2024, the government sold all of the Bitcoin across different exchanges. They sold at an average price of $57,900 each, making around $2.8 billion in total.
That decision has since drawn criticism because the value of Bitcoin rose sharply after the sales. By November 2024, Bitcoin had reached $90,000, and in December it climbed above $100,000.
At its peak in August, the coin was worth more than $124,000. If Germany had waited, the 49,858 Bitcoin it sold would have been valued at more than $5 billion, nearly double what it received.
Meanwhile, officials defended their decision. They said the law requires them to sell risky assets like cryptocurrencies fast. According to prosecutors, if there is a chance of losing even 10% of value, they must sell.
Now, Arkham’s new findings suggest there could be even more Bitcoin tied to Movie2K that has not yet been touched. The platform said the 45,060 Bitcoin it found was not part of the earlier sales carried out by the government.
For German authorities to seize these funds, they would first need to prove in court that the coins came from Movie2K and were earned illegally. Even then, investigators would need to track down who controls the wallets and get access to the private keys before moving the funds.
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