UK Home Office working towards sale of $7 billion seized BTC stockpile: The Telegraph

The United Kingdom's Home Office, the country's interior ministry, is working with police on selling a stockpile of seized cryptocurrency which contains at least $7 billion USD worth of Bitcoin, The Telegraph reported Saturday.

Though the total value of all cryptocurrency seized by the UK is unknown, the stash contains at least 61,000 $BTC which was recovered from a Chinese Ponzi scheme's UK stash. A woman was sentenced to over six years in jail in 2024 for her role in laundering 150 $BTC on behalf of a Chinese woman connected to the fraud. Though the victims have asked for the return of the funds, the Crown Prosecution Service has sought permission from the High Court to keep the seized $BTC, with the cash then passing to the Treasury.

The possible sale has caught the attention of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, who is facing a significant budget shortfall, The Telegraph reported. Reeves said in April that the UK Treasury is eager to work with the United States to better support innovation across the crypto industry through clearer regulation.

"Robust rules around crypto will boost investor confidence, support the growth of Fintech and protect people across the UK," Reeves said in a statement at the time.

The UK government is also offering a contract to run a centralized service tasked with holding and selling seized cryptocurrencies, according to a tender notice issued by police-owned procurement company BlueLight Commercial on behalf of the Home Office. The contract, worth up to $53.7 million, would last at least four years. However, the proposal has not yet received acceptable bids, The Telegraph said.

Further complicating matters is the lengthy typical timeline between the seizure of digital assets by police and when those assets are cleared for sale.

"The average time between seizure of assets and conclusion of the legal proceedings (realisation) is within 1 year, for more complex cases can be 3 to 4 years," the tender notice admits.