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According to the news, Bulgaria may become the second largest cryptocurrency reserve country in the world. If it retains all cryptocurrencies, it can repay 25% of its national debt overnight.

It is known that most of the cryptocurrencies in Bulgaria are seized from criminals. Last May, Bulgarian law enforcement, together with the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELC), a 12-member regional organization, busted a customs-evading criminal gang and seized 213,519 BTC worth approximately 3.3 billion Dollar.

SELC said the criminal gang hacked into Bulgarian customs computers, enabling criminal organizations to import goods into the country without paying customs duties and other fees. To this end, the gang also bribed several customs officials to plant viruses on government computers so that hackers could manipulate them remotely.

With the prosperity of the cryptocurrency market, the number of bitcoins seized by various countries is staggering. Bulgaria opted for storage, while some countries opted for auctions.

Germany recently sold seized cryptocurrencies for $13.9 million, dubbed the “highest cryptocurrency auction in German history.” U.S. law enforcement maintains at least $1 billion worth of digital currency, and the actual amount is likely to be much higher.

However, due to the lack of transparency in the asset accounts of government departments, the number of bitcoins held by the government cannot be accurately counted. In addition, digital currency is anonymous and easy to transfer, and it is almost impossible for the public to track the flow of digital currency. This made the public suspicious of the government.

The U.S. government explained that there are many agencies with the authority to seize crypto (among them the Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Post Office), and that the government itself has difficulty determining the scale of the confiscated cryptocurrencies. Also, if details such as the sale of cryptocurrencies are disclosed, the work accounts of secret agents may be leaked to criminals.

A U.S. law enforcement officer said: "I have worked in law enforcement for 23 years. Whenever the police confiscate cash, someone will always embezzle it. I don't think it will be any different on Bitcoin."

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, the two agents had extorted money from criminals and illegally embezzled confiscated cryptocurrencies."Fortune MagazineTrying to track bitcoin sales, they found from court records and government confiscation notices that several bitcoin seizures were documented but notno sale record

. For example, court documents in 2014 showed that the IRS seized 222 bitcoins from a marijuana dealer in Texas, but there was no written record of the sale; A couple of illegal drugs seized 50.44 bitcoins, and there was no auction record; in the confiscation notice of the local police in Salt Lake City in early February this year, it showed that the value of the cryptocurrency was $0, but in fact it seized 99 bitcoins, which were worth about There are $800,000.The Marshals Service declined to comment

Currently, only the U.S. Department of Justice operateswebsiteThe situation of cryptocurrencies confiscated by multiple departments is listed, but the news is often lagging behind, and new news will overwrite old news, so it will not be archived, and it is difficult for the public to track the whereabouts of the seized illegal cryptocurrencies.

(I am Yannan, a reporter from Odaily. I am exploring the real blockchain. Please add WeChat nangua421262 for breaking news and communicating. Please note your name, unit, position and reason.)