Bulgaria Government Shocked To Discover It Owns $3 Billion In Bitcoin

[Tavarez]

If I read correctly Bulgaria can now pay 1/5 of own debt with discovered amount of bitcoin. Btc was taken by government as an act against corruption and it's value is estimated to 3.6$ billion. In my opinion this is clean robbery by Bulgarian gov. rather than confiscation of btc.

[cryptoflyer]

They have to hodl and wait 1 year, then they will be able to fully pay off the country's debt 

[WEBcreator]

If I read correctly Bulgaria can now pay 1/5 of own debt with discovered amount of bitcoin. Btc was taken by government as an act against corruption and it's value is estimated to 3.6$ billion. In my opinion this is clean robbery by Bulgarian gov. rather than confiscation of btc.

You are being stupid at this because anything that you confiscate become yours that means the bulgarian goverment has every right to use that money to pay their own debt or even to spend it overnight. It is from corruption of their own country so it is basically just taking their money backs from all those corruptors that corrupt with bitcoin

[bill gator]

It's hilarious to think about the amount of times that people found an old address with a few 100-coins that used to be pennies a piece and then realizing that bitcoin is worth thousands of dollars a piece. It gives me greet joy to just picture all of the unsuspecting, overnight millionaires that bitcoin has picked like flowers around the world; whoever put it's faith in bitcoin has been rewarded handsomely, either monetarily or through the gratification of being correct about bitcoins success. Now, it seems that one of these outcomes is blatantly a better outcome, but not everyone can wake up a millionaire randomly so you've gotta choose your battles and take your speculation as a good lesson, do not miss the train when you're the one that sees it coming from a mile away.

The question becomes what is Bulgaria going to do with these coins? Do they plan to liquidate these coins and pay off some of their debt, invest in some infrastructure or something else that may benefit their people, country and overall situation? I think it may be smart for them to just hang onto their coins for now, you woke up with a money-tree, there is no reason to bonsai the tree, or to cut it short. This was a surprise to them and they should treat it with care, not like some careless lottery winner that wants to experience the finer things. Does anyone know if other governments hold a significant amount of coin, either through direct investment or through seizure of assets? These will probably be the governments that experience a really big jolt inn their economy in the coming years; before we know it we'll have every country running their own alt-coins because they all think it's just the next Fiat for them to control, print, tax, tariff, manipulate, distribute, legislate.

[cindygirl]

This news it quite positive. Governments may be scared of bitcoin, but in case like this they discover that having bitcoin they seized makes them actually wealthier. I would bet a lot of money that the Bulgarian Government is not going to pass any laws to forbid bitcoin, they are probably astonished.

Politicians usually go far behind innovations like this, but now they have to deal with it.

Or to the contrary they could now be thinking about how to be even stricter on bitcoin and especially in terms of corruption or money laundering so that they can cease a further amount and be in an ever better position. It will be funny when it turns out they don't have the private key for those coins!

When I read this title I just considered that wow dude such governments are so amazing that they are investing such bight amount in bitcoins. They are working better for their population but here the story is totally changed. Yes, they are making money and they even intend to do money laundering. Bitcoins will help them in such a case because they are decentralized and no one can reveal them out.

That would be truly awesome if they had invested in bitcoin, now that they've got all this new found extra wealth they may consider cryptocurrencies more in the future. I think in time we will see a major county really take a favouring to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole, right now Japan is leading the way but in time I think others will overtake them to be at the forefront.

[yoseph]

In bitcoin Balkans trust. Some countries seriously interest cryptocurrencies such as Bulgaria, especially Estonia. As some economists say an economic expansion is needed to fight with economical crisis. Crypto s could be a solution maybe

Had some countries been wise, they would have been able to make money by investing in bitcoins by now, they could have established mining factories where they would have mined it and thus have gotten money for some developments in the country.

[streetlight]

In bitcoin Balkans trust. Some countries seriously interest cryptocurrencies such as Bulgaria, especially Estonia. As some economists say an economic expansion is needed to fight with economical crisis. Crypto s could be a solution maybe

Had some countries been wise, they would have been able to make money by investing in bitcoins by now, they could have established mining factories where they would have mined it and thus have gotten money for some developments in the country.

You mean like Bulgaria?!

Think about this... the population of Bulgaria is only ~7 million. Therefore the government made enough money for $420 per person. And lots of people are wealthy and don't need that, so they could give $1,000 to the poorest 35% imagine how much better their country will be!

If they held the Bitcoins their country could become the richest one in the world.

[RamonBTC]

I was honestly surprised that it was not been audited for a long time since May and none have send some bitcoin amount to other wallets of the corrupt law enforcement who hold this case. And with that I absolutely applaud they’re government on this instances, if I know if this happens in our country a 3billion$ worth of bitcoin would be missing and go to those pockets/wallets by the corrupted government officials. It is a positive news in my eyes.

[d1ceplayer]

That price of BTC can influence the market to crash or rise, even though it is not easy to convert all of that coins in one day or two even if you own a business to prove that you have a money, a billion amount of fiat currency is not easy to pull from the government that is why Bitcoin have been accused to be an anti-money laundering.

P.S I hope that a small fraction of that money goes to charity work. 

Definitely it is not that much easy to do this. Bulgaria government is either accused of this or not but believe me no one can retrieve any money out bitcoin on so short notice. These are just rumors and try to make disturbance and insecurity amongst the users. Bitcoins are not being legalized, why it is so? This is the reason. Not to do money laundering while governments are used to of it.

[wxa7115]

Now since they've found out a lucky fortune, I hope they're smart enough to retain it for a few more years and not sell it. This could slowly help them settle their nation's debt and could probably be used to help the poor. I would be a happy Bulgarian if a certain percentage of those Bitcoin holdings were given away as an airdrop to the general public. A holding of that proportion could probably bring down the price of Bitcoin by a small percentage for a few days if it were to be sold to a large buyer(s).

Now apart from this, there's also news that the United Bulgarian Bank and the First Investment Bank (Fibank) have closed accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges a day or two ago. Could this mean that, they're not welcoming exchanges and the public from trading crypto? If this is the case, then I wonder if people would even be given a part of the lucky fortune.

They do not have a responsibility to give that money away, people are just going to spend that money in useless stuff, if anything the Bulgarian government should just keep holding that amount of bitcoin similar to what happens to gold, they could spend it but again that will be a mistake since the price of bitcoin still is very low compared to what it can potentially reach.

[dkbit98]

Does anyone have more information what happened with this 213,519 Bitcoins and can someone identify exact addresses and transactions related with this?

In time when Bitcoin was seized from Bulgarian police it was worth around $500 million, and today that is worth more than $8,5 billion, that is more than a half of all national debt of Bulgaria ($15,5 billion according to worlddebtclocks.com)

[bryant.coleman]

Does anyone have more information what happened with this 213,519 Bitcoins and can someone identify exact addresses and transactions related with this?

In time when Bitcoin was seized from Bulgarian police it was worth around $500 million, and today that is worth more than $8,5 billion, that is more than a half of all national debt of Bulgaria ($15,5 billion according to worlddebtclocks.com)

I have seen posts claiming that Bulgaria is still holding those coins. But it needs to be confirmed. Unlike what happened when the FBI seized the coins from Ross Ulbricht (they auctioned it after a few months in 2015, for around $300 per coin), I haven't seen any news about the Bulgarian government auctioning these coins. So I would assume that they still have them. But I am surprised that there is hardly any media coverage on this. This is huge news! Because Bulgaria has essentially wiped out its national debt with the help of Bitcoins! If this news is publicized, then it will encourage other countries to hold Bitcoins in their forex reserves (albeit in small quantities). 

[el kaka22]

Discovered? What the hell? First of all I think it is quite a shock that they only have like 10-15 billion dollars in debt, that is a very very small amount and if 3 billion dollar covers nearly 20% of your debt then you are doing something awesome, or they are such a small nation that they didn't even make that much of a debt, I do not know which is the case but I can say that they have a very tiny amount in debt that could be paid very easily, like even one big company selling stuff internationally can cover it and then some all by itself, that is a huge deal.

Secondly the fact that they just seized crypto and now suddenly richer as a whole nation is a great deal for them, but they probably knew what they were doing before they did it, they probably didn't "discover" it but took this seriously enough because they knew that they were getting a ton of money from this seizure.

[uneng]

Does anyone have more information what happened with this 213,519 Bitcoins and can someone identify exact addresses and transactions related with this?

In time when Bitcoin was seized from Bulgarian police it was worth around $500 million, and today that is worth more than $8,5 billion, that is more than a half of all national debt of Bulgaria ($15,5 billion according to worlddebtclocks.com)

I have seen posts claiming that Bulgaria is still holding those coins. But it needs to be confirmed. Unlike what happened when the FBI seized the coins from Ross Ulbricht (they auctioned it after a few months in 2015, for around $300 per coin), I haven't seen any news about the Bulgarian government auctioning these coins. So I would assume that they still have them. But I am surprised that there is hardly any media coverage on this. This is huge news! Because Bulgaria has essentially wiped out its national debt with the help of Bitcoins! If this news is publicized, then it will encourage other countries to hold Bitcoins in their forex reserves (albeit in small quantities). 

I think it's now bulgarian citizens and their representatives' duty to ask the government formally about these bitcoins. That is a huge amount of money which can be very helpful for the country. It must be watched closely and the fate of this money decided wisely. Bulgaria is really smart to have been holding these coins, that creates a big differential between them and other countries regards crypto adoption.

[romero121]

Does anyone have more information what happened with this 213,519 Bitcoins and can someone identify exact addresses and transactions related with this?

In time when Bitcoin was seized from Bulgarian police it was worth around $500 million, and today that is worth more than $8,5 billion, that is more than a half of all national debt of Bulgaria ($15,5 billion according to worlddebtclocks.com)

That's really a big value holding. During the peak price of bitcoin this value could've got increased even higher. Maybe with the Bitcoin holding it can turn itself a debt free country in the coming months/years. The country is termed to be the poorest among the entire European Union though it has got small population. However being a country without debt is truly amazing.

[Sithara007]

I think it's now bulgarian citizens and their representatives' duty to ask the government formally about these bitcoins. That is a huge amount of money which can be very helpful for the country. It must be watched closely and the fate of this money decided wisely. Bulgaria is really smart to have been holding these coins, that creates a big differential between them and other countries regards crypto adoption.

Actually the Bulgarian government hasn't done anything unusual. Similar to the other Eastern European nations, the legal system in Bulgaria is compounded by bureaucracy and red tape. The coins were held, because they could be sold only after the court rules that the proceeds are from criminal activity. The slowness of the legal system actually helped the Bulgarian government in this case. In any other country, the coins could have been auctioned in 2017 itself. In the US, they took just a few months to completely dump the Silk Road coins.

[stompix]

Discovered? What the hell? First of all I think it is quite a shock that they only have like 10-15 billion dollars in debt, that is a very very small amount

Bulgaria has quite the low debt to GDP percentage of around 20% compared to the average European country but they're also the poorest of all those countries, their GDP for example is the same as Rhode Island. And even despite this, those 200k BTC who are now worth around 8 billion, not 3 as in 2017 when the topic started will barely give the average Bulgarian 100 euros, that's 3 minimum government wage, far from what some people have described as getting the whole country back on track.

Secondly the fact that they just seized crypto and now suddenly richer as a whole nation is a great deal for them, but they probably knew what they were doing before they did it, they probably didn't "discover" it but took this seriously enough because they knew that they were getting a ton of money from this seizure.

Not really, the police action was international cooperation against trafficking, and knowing how corruption works in the area I'm willing to bet that they acted only because of the pressure put on them by other countries and the EU, fighting money laundering and trafficking is not really something Bulgarian authorities are interested in, more like the opposite.

However being a country without debt is truly amazing.

Yeah right, and how is better to be debt-free and living in poverty than 100% in debs and with the country being in the most envied in the world!
Ask any Bulgarian citizen what would they prefer, debt-free and the poorest in the EU or 3 times the current debt and the living standards in Slovenia?
Oh wait, looking at how many Bulgarian have fled the country to debt impoverished countries I think we have the answer already!

[Vishnu.Reang]

Yeah right, and how is better to be debt-free and living in poverty than 100% in debs and with the country being in the most envied in the world!
Ask any Bulgarian citizen what would they prefer, debt-free and the poorest in the EU or 3 times the current debt and the living standards in Slovenia?
Oh wait, looking at how many Bulgarian have fled the country to debt impoverished countries I think we have the answer already!

I get your point, but the money can't be stolen if it is used for repayment of debt. If it is used for any other purpose, at least a part of it would be stolen. I don't know much about the political situation in Bulgaria, but I have heard that there is a lot of corruption in the Balkan nations. IMO, the best thing to do for the Bulgarian government would be to hold these coins for the long term, with a target of $250,000 per coin, or $500,000 per coin. They can simply add this stash to their forex reserves (if they haven't done that already).

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

I am right now laughing my ass off because how the hell did the government are oblivious of their own wealth, far as I know, the government wants their hands on everything and they want to monitor everything so yeah this one is kinda ironic if you think about it. But that's a good thing that they have bitcoin because it grows in time and they can use it as additional funds.

[justdimin]

Had some countries been wise, they would have been able to make money by investing in bitcoins by now, they could have established mining factories where they would have mined it and thus have gotten money for some developments in the country.

You mean like Bulgaria?!

Think about this... the population of Bulgaria is only ~7 million. Therefore the government made enough money for $420 per person. And lots of people are wealthy and don't need that, so they could give $1,000 to the poorest 35% imagine how much better their country will be!

If they held the Bitcoins their country could become the richest one in the world.

Many nations could do that in logic, but they are not doing that because that would be something that doesn't help anyone in the long run, but they are not doing the long term neither. You know how a nation could basically transition itself to one of the richest nations in the world? They could simply build renewable energy platforms, solar/wind whatever and they can spend all the 3 billion dollars on it, and hire so many people as well, all the electricity in the nation will be free, people would have jobs, thousands of jobs, and all the excess energy will be sold to other nations, keep growing that and one day you will be so rich that you will not need to worry about money as a nation.

USA is a HUUUUGE nation for example, it has millions of unemployed people and tens of millions of underpaid people, just build renewable energy business as government and eventually they will be once again economical giant of the world and be way way way bigger than china again.