$5 Billion Bitcoin Treasure Tied To Piracy Website Found In German Wallets

Arkham Intelligence has flagged roughly 45,000 Bitcoin tied to the Movie2K piracy case that have not moved since 2019, a discovery that raises fresh questions about what was missed when German authorities handled the earlier ￰0￱ current prices, those coins are worth nearly $5 billion, putting renewed scrutiny on Berlin’s choices last ￰1￱ Tracks Dormant Movie2K Holdings According to Arkham, the dormant stash sits across more than 100 wallets linked to the defunct Movie2K ￰2￱ have disclosed that Movie2K operators were arrested in 2019, and that German authorities recovered nearly 49,858 BTC in January ￰3￱ coins were later sold off in June and July ￰4￱ newly identified 45,000 BTC, however, showed no movement after 2019, suggesting control by the same operators rather than state custody.

BREAKING: ARKHAM IDENTIFIES $5B BTC THAT THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT FAILED TO SEIZE German police seized 49,858 BTC from the operators of Movie2K, a film piracy website, in early ￰5￱ government sold it in July 2024 for $2.89B at an average price of $57,900. It appears that… ￰6￱ — Arkham (@arkham) September 5, 2025 Government Sold Earlier Holdings At Lower Prices Based on reports , the January 2024 seizure — close to 49,860 BTC — was liquidated at an average price of $57,900, generating about €2.64 billion, or roughly $2.90 ￰7￱ defended the move by warning of a possible “significant loss of value of around 10% or more” if it held the coins ￰8￱ prices have since climbed, and Bitcoin has reached an all-time high above $123,000, making the earlier sale look, in raw numbers, like a large missed ￰9￱ And Technical Hurdles Remain The new finding does not automatically mean those wallets can be taken by the ￰10￱ steps would be required to prove ownership and to secure court ￰11￱ challenges exist too: dormant keys, complex custody chains, and cross-border links can all slow or block ￰12￱ say recovery is possible in some cases, but it is rarely quick or ￰13￱ another large tranche of coins were to be moved into markets, it could create pressure similar to what was seen after the mid-2024 ￰14￱ Over State Bitcoin Reserves Joana Cotar , a German lawmaker and Bitcoin supporter, wrote an open letter urging a ￰15￱ argued that holding confiscated Bitcoin as a sovereign reserve could have produced far larger returns for the ￰16￱ the same time, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel has warned that Bitcoin is volatile and compared its surge behavior to Tulip Mania – a financial bubble that happened in the Dutch Republic during the early 1600s.

It’s often called the first recorded speculative bubble in ￰17￱ countries have taken different ￰18￱ note that El Salvador recently shifted $678 million in Bitcoin into 14 wallets to guard against quantum risks while keeping the holdings visible on the ￰19￱ image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView