As reported by
Decrypt, the French government will auction bitcoin worth $34.5 million, seized from alleged hackers of GateHub, a British platform built on the XRP Ledger protocol.
In brief
Next week, some $34.5 million worth of Bitcoin will go on sale in France.
The vast majority of the cryptocurrency was seized during the investigation of the 2019 GateHub hack.
According to a recent report by
Cyberguerre, the auction will be held on behalf of the French Agency for the Management and Return of Seized and Confiscated Assets (AGRASC) by the Paris auction house
Kapandji Morhange on March 17. Almost all the bitcoins put up for auction 610 out of 611 were seized by the courts during the investigation of the GateHub hack, GateHub was hacked in June 2019, resulting in a loss of 23 million XRP worth $9.2 million at the time. Later that year, a hacker attack targeted a crypto wallet service that compromised the personal data of 1.4 million users.
The investigation is being conducted against two individuals, Nassim B and Gabriel Kab (known by the online handles Prosox and Kurois'h), who were also accused of hacking the YouTube channel of the Vevo music video platform in 2018.
As the judicial investigation into the GateHub hack is still ongoing, this means that if Gabriel Kab and Nassim B are cleared of the charges, they will receive all proceeds from the French government's planned Bitcoin auction. If they are found guilty, the proceeds from the sale will go to the French government.