Australia Police recently revealed that they made a $100,000 profit by selling seized bitcoins. Other countries, including the UK and US, regularly auction off seized cryptocurrencies. Just a few months ago, UK police raised $369,000 by auctioning seized cryptocurrencies.
Australia police had arrested a suspect for selling firearms in exchange for bitcoin back in 2016. As the case went on in 2018, January the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce and Criminal Assets Litigation teams in Brisbane successfully restrained the Bitcoin, which at the time, was worth around AUD$7,300 (USD$5,000).
It took 11 months to fully secure the Bitcoin when the perpetrator finally agreed to forfeit the coins, following a drawn-out litigation process. And by that time, the value of the leading cryptocurrency had risen dramatically. This was the first instance that the AFP seized Bitcoin as part of a criminal investigation.
