PANews reported on July 20 that the UK Home Office is working with the police to sell a batch of seized cryptocurrencies to fill a budget gap. The total amount of cryptocurrency currently seized by the police is unclear. However, a raid in 2018 seized 61,000 bitcoins from a Ponzi scheme case. Last week, the value of bitcoin reached $123,000, making its value exceed £5.4 billion (approximately $7 billion), a 20-fold increase since it was seized.
The Home Office plans to establish a 'cryptocurrency storage and monetization framework' that will allow law enforcement agencies to securely store frozen digital currencies and sell them. According to a tender notice issued by BlueLight Commercial, a procurement company under the police, on behalf of the Home Office, the UK government will also provide a contract to operate a centralized service responsible for holding and selling seized cryptocurrencies. The contract is worth up to $53.7 million and will last for at least four years. However, the proposal has not yet received acceptable bids. The time between police seizing digital assets and liquidating those assets is often lengthy. The tender notice acknowledges that 'the average time between asset seizure and the conclusion of legal proceedings (monetization) is less than one year; for more complex cases, it may take three to four years.'
