It was one of the biggest blows against drug trafficking in the so-called Darknet, which the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime has so far managed to achieve.

In July of this year, three suspects were sentenced to several years' imprisonment for gang trafficking in large quantities of narcotics.

And the attorney general made sure something else with the three gentlemen: crypto currencies like Bitcoin with a total value of around 100 million euros.

Tim Kanning

Editor in business.

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What do you do with so much virtual money?

The Cologne public prosecutor's office made headlines in October when, following a similar case, it auctioned 215 Bitcoin worth almost 12 million euros at the time.

The Frankfurters have now chosen a different path. 

"Contaminated Coins" 

The General Public Prosecutor's Office has now legalized the crypto values ​​through the Sheikh bank and brought them back onto the market, as the FAZ now explained.

The bank had already completely sold off the values ​​in the past ten days.  

Since the crypto currencies are related to crime, they are considered "contaminated coins", as the Sheikh bank explains, and cannot be traded on common stock exchanges. The alarm bells should ring immediately as soon as someone wants to act with values ​​that are marked as contaminated. Together with the ZIT, the bank has now established a process through which trading partners are informed that the currencies are back in legal possession and have been declared "clean".

A total of nine other cryptocurrencies were sold in addition to Bitcoin, Chief Public Prosecutor Jana Ringwald told the FAZ The exploitation of Monero was particularly challenging. This crypto currency is so anonymized that it can be assumed that only criminal business will be carried out with it. For this reason, only very few providers would even offer trading with it.

Bankhaus Scheich, which mainly acts as a market maker on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, but also positions itself as a dealer of crypto currencies, does not normally trade with Monero, explains managing director Nils von Schoenaich-Carolath. “In this case, we exchanged ideas with the supervisor in advance and then made an exception,” he says. The bank and the judicial authority emphasize that they have developed a so far unique, professional and legally secure solution in Germany to bring crypto assets back to the regular market. The ZIT and Sheikh have concluded a framework agreement for the future exploitation of confiscated crypto assets. "Cryptocurrencies are the means of payment in cybercrime," said Ringwald. "Not only securing them requires a professional approach,but also their recovery. "

And why are the judicial authorities in Frankfurt going a different way than those in Cologne?

"Virtual currencies are not cars or watches," says Ringwald.

“For them there are liquid markets and an always up-to-date price.” In addition, the volumes to be sold, the multitude of currencies and the requirement to legalize the confiscated assets for resale would not have opened the way to sale via auction from the point of view of ZIT .

The money from the realization now flows to the court treasury, which it keeps until the case is finally closed.