What are governments and institutions doing with cryptocurrencies seized by law enforcement? They sometimes sell them. This is what the Lithuanian tax service did, pocketing the jackpot in the process.
Lithuanian tax service gets rid of cryptocurrencies
According to the media Delfi , the assets had been “ confiscated“ by the police. However, this is the first time that a Lithuanian government institution has chosen to offer cryptocurrency for sale. From Bitcoin Circuit app of the Ether (ETH) and Monero (XMR) were sold, which has identified 6.3 billion euros, which directly integrated government coffers.
A representative of the tax inspectorate, Irina Gavrilova, explained that the maneuver took some time, because of its novelty:
“The whole process was new to the tax administration , starting with taking over the confiscated cryptocurrency, which ended with its sale. “
In total, the process took nearly a day, according to the Lithuanian tax service. But it should be made easier as it becomes a habit.
Who wants my cryptos?
We note that more and more governments are choosing to sell their stock of seized cryptocurrencies , when the ongoing investigations are completed. This year, this had already been the case in Belgium, where the government had raised € 110,000 by selling cryptos . It should also be noted that Lithuania had already shown significant openness to the field , by offering LBCOIN collection tokens distributed by the central bank.