Police Confiscate $60 Million in Bitcoin From Man Who Refuses to Share His Password

Alex Montrose
·2 min read

Image via Getty

Love it or hate it, there’s one thing about Bitcoin that continues to be true: it’s secure.

Countless have lost money in Bitcoin after losing passwords and thus access to their funds. But that also means it’s safe from third parties trying to hack into your crypto, including the cops.

Such is the case in Germany, where local prosecutors confiscated more than 50 million euros (or $60 million USD) worth of bitcoin from a man sentenced for fraud, according to Reuters. The only problem? They can’t access it because the man won’t share his password with authorities.

As the news organization points out, bitcoin is encrypted and requires a password to access the “digital wallet” where the currency is held.

The man was sentenced and served two years in jail for secretly installing a software on other computers that mined bitcoin on his behalf. In the years since he was incarcerated, the value of bitcoin shot up, turning his sum into a large fortune. The value hit a record high of $42,000 in January.

But police have tried and failed to crack the code to access his more than 1,700 bitcoin, and the man continues to maintain his silence.

“We asked him but he didn’t say,” prosecutor Sebastian Murer told Reuters. “Perhaps he doesn’t know.”

Prosecutors emphasized that the man also doesn’t have the ability to access his fortune, joining the massive sum lost by bitcoin investors who also forgot their passwords.

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