German Bitcoin sale was an "emergency sale"

The Bitcoin community wondered: why is the German state of Saxony selling 50,000 BTC? Now the public prosecutor's office has explained the sale.

The "Sächsische Zentralstelle zur Verwahrung und Verwertung von virtuellen Währungen" at the public prosecutor's office in Dresden has suspended the sale of nearly 50,000 Bitcoin explained. With the help of the regulated Frankfurter Bankhaus Scheich Wertpapierspezialist AG (yes that's the full title) and with the support of the BKA, they achieved sales proceeds of about 2.6 billion euros.

"This billion-dollar sum stems from the criminal trial of the movie2k case at the court in Leipzig," the press release said.

"As part of a so-called "emergency sale" under § 111p of the Strafprozessordnung, the Dresden prosecutor's office decided to soon sell the Bitcoins, which were briefly transferred by the defendant," it further stated.

The reason for this is the volatile nature of Bitcoin. If a significant drop in value of about 10 percent threatens, assets can be sold even before the process is completed. Thus, the sale was legally necessary. Moreover, an emergency sale prohibits any speculation on rising prices. This is enshrined in German law.

"Saxony and the Saxon justice system have been in the spotlight of the global crypto community in recent months. Our Attorney General and his staff, along with outside experts, professionally and successfully conducted the extraordinary emergency sale of Bitcoins on an unprecedented scale," said Saxon Justice Minister Katja Meier.

Thanks to the rise in the exchange rate since early January - the time of confiscation - the euro value of Bitcoin has increased by 700 million euros. However, due to the recent rise in the BTC exchange rate, the prosecution lost about 270 million euros.