Finland’s government released new guidelines today that set out how law enforcement officials must handle cryptocurrencies they confiscate.
The official agencies in charge of storing the cryptocurrencies will now be prohibited from storing them on exchanges, and must instead keep them offline and inaccessible from the internet, a Bloomberg report states, citing official Treasury documents.
The ruling effectively means the agencies involved will need to identify some form of cold storage solution, in which they would maintain a wallet that does not have an active Web connection. Bloomberg said the Helsinki customs office would not indicate how it has been storing the cryptocurrencies until now.
The news source states that Finland’s authorities currently hold around 2,000 BTC that have been confiscated in raids since 2016, as per data from the customs office. At today’s prices, the 2,000 BTC is worth around $23 million, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index.
As reported by CoinDesk, in 2016, customs agents in Finland seized bitcoin and other items worth about €1 million at the time, in connection with the operation of an online dark market called Valhalla.
Asset treatment
The new guidelines go on to indicate that authorities must also treat cryptocurrencies as assets, rather than as currencies…
Read Full: Finland Mandates Cold Storage, Public Auctions for Seized Bitcoins
