Bulgaria do not hold 213000 BTC according to the Minstry of Finance.

[TheBeardedBaby]

There were a lot of speculations regarding the 213000 bitcoins confiscated by the Bulgarian Government authorities back in 2017.
Everything started after >

The Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC) published a press release titled “More than 200,000 Bitcoins in Value of 500 Million USD Seized by Bulgarian Authorities”

After 5 years of questioning did this really happened, the Ministry of Finance came with an answer of the question whether there were any coins/seeds/passwords confiscated.

Here is the research article of the ClubZ.bg newspaper you can use a translator to read it.

I'll put some parts translated with google :

In short, the Ministry of Finance "has no information on bitcoins confiscated or confiscated in favor of the state." They added that the inspection was carried out at a time when Asen Vassilev was only a caretaker minister. He ordered the NRA and the Customs Agency to seek answers.

In addition to the inspection, by letters dated 11-02-151 dated 05.07.2021 and 03.08.2021, the Minister of Finance requested the Prosecutor General to check whether the Bulgarian state owns 213,519 bitcoins. On August 24, 2021, a response was received from the Deputy Prosecutor General at the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office, stating that the Specialized Prosecutor's Office did not seize and store 213,519 bitcoins, "reads the letter from the Ministry of Finance to us.

Meanwhile, it became clear today that the MP from "Democratic Bulgaria" Ivaylo Mirchev has requested detailed information from Minister Boyko Rashkov about the fate of the alleged bitcoins.

Ivaylo Mirchev wants the Interior Minister to get an answer whether pre-trial proceedings have been instituted, whether an indictment has been filed in court, how many bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies have been seized in the investigation, where bitcoins are stored - online platform / exchange, hot wallet ( wallet on a computer connected to the Internet), on a cold wallet (wallet on a device separate from the computer that does not have an Internet connection) or on other media.

"Do the investigating authorities have the necessary private keys and keywords to recover these private keys in order to dispose of seized bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, has any evidence been disposed of so far and if so, what order, when and for what reason, are they currently available as evidence in the case and are they available to the prosecutor's office? ”asks Mirchev, who will also expect information from the Minister of Electronic Government Bozhidar Bojanov.

I will follow the case and see it there's any new information coming out anytime soon and I'll keep you updated.
My personal opinion is that the Government never had control over any bitcoins at all, they maybe had the public address of the wallets holding them but never had access to them.

[NeuroticFish]

It was also discussed in the topic [ LIST ] Countries that own bitcoin last year.
One reply gave pretty good leads, which ends up to this news: in Bulgarian, or translated to English.

Long story short, they've sold all those coins in secrecy at the end of 2017 at around 15k EUR/BTC. Or at least that's what they claim to have been doing.

[TheBeardedBaby]

It was also discussed in the topic [ LIST ] Countries that own bitcoin last year.
One reply gave pretty good leads, which ends up to this news: in Bulgarian, or translated to English.

Long story short, they've sold all those coins in secrecy at the end of 2017 at around 15k EUR/BTC. Or at least that's what they claim to have been doing.

This article was posted on 1st Of April. I can guarantee you that it's not the real story but only a AprilFools joke and it was meant to be a joke just like theymos does it on that date.
It is common in Bulgaria on 1st of April the media to post unrealistic news just for fun. Coming from there I can tell you that "buying a new squadron for the Air Force" it's completely unrealistic when they took a loan for it.
They planned to take loans for all the F16 deals they were planning to make, so I would classify the Bivol's post as a joke, and not looking into it seriously.

[hatshepsut93]

It was always clear that they don't posses the coins, but I'm curious just what actually happened? Did they seize any coins at all? Did they make a mistake with the number of coins? Maybe the did seize some coins but they lost them or they got embezzled?

[Cookdata]

This is going to be a natural disaster, perhaps an earthquake to the market if the government changes it mind one day. That's a quite huge number of Bitcoins for anh organization and this is held by government that can do and undo at any time. They should auction it out as other countries do, it will be merit to us and every bitcoin holder and rest of mind on the entire market.
I don't know why I don't feel happy when I see government headlines and bitcoin.

[electronicash]

This is going to be a natural disaster, perhaps an earthquake to the market if the government changes it mind one day. That's a quite huge number of Bitcoins for anh organization and this is held by government that can do and undo at any time. They should auction it out as other countries do, it will be merit to us and every bitcoin holder and rest of mind on the entire market.
I don't know why I don't feel happy when I see government headlines and bitcoin.

they denied they have the amount of BTC. but since they have confiscated some, it would appear they do have a ton of BTC and it was during the time when BTC was still cheap and people keep thier BTC on exchanges.

i feel happy if a government has BTC which means they do have reserves. they may not consider it reserve for now but it must be as it's still a currency. they should keep it instead unless they want to be like El Salvador whos buying because there is nothing to confiscate.  

[Poker Player]

You see, even recently I remember seeing Bulgaria on the list of countries holding Bitcoins as number one. In any case in Bulgaria they don't look like Bitcoin believers like the president of El Salvador, so it would not be surprising if they were sold.

It was always clear that they don't posses the coins, but I'm curious just what actually happened? Did they seize any coins at all? Did they make a mistake with the number of coins? Maybe the did seize some coins but they lost them or they got embezzled?

Yes, these are a lot of questions that I too would like to see answered.