Arkham Intelligence has identified a cluster of 45,000 BTC — roughly $5 billion at current prices — that it believes was not seized during Germany’s high-profile Movie2K confiscation.
The analytics firm said the tranche ties back to wallets used by Movie2K, the film-piracy site that ran between 2008 and 2013. Arkham reported the cluster remained untouched from November 2013 until January 2019, when the coins were moved to new addresses. The pattern of movement, address types and the amounts held are highly similar to the roughly 49,858 BTC German authorities previously confiscated.
Arkham CEO Miguel Morel told Decrypt the newly identified cluster shares common origins with the seized stash, having received initial deposits from the same defunct exchanges — Mt. Gox and AnxPro. Based on those parallels, Arkham said it has “extremely high confidence” the coins belong to Movie2K or its operators.
Background: German prosecutors recovered about 49,858 BTC via a voluntary transfer from Movie2K operators in January 2024 and sold the coins in July 2024 for approximately $2.89 billion. At today’s prices, that original haul would be worth about $5.62 billion.
Two men have been charged in connection with Movie2K; both received suspended sentences after cooperating with investigators. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) declined to comment on the newly identified wallets when contacted by reporters.
Why readers should care: this revelation raises questions about the completeness of asset seizures and about enforcement procedures for crypto-held proceeds of crime. There are also market implications — further recoveries or sales of large BTC tranches can move prices — and custody considerations for seized digital assets.
Source: Decrypt. Read the original coverage for full details.