🧙♂️ Welcome Wizardians and crypto connoisseurs. Boy o’ boy does our world have some bizarre events. Let’s explore one of the strangest crypto current events I have come across yet.
What to expect as you read on… $1.5 million in Bitcoin, a drug dealer, and the Swedish government. Should be a good one.
But first, did you miss the $2k prize pool tournament powered by Spintop? Watch it here:
⚖️ Here’s the sitch:
⏰ Dialing back the clock, in 2019, a man was arrested by the Swedish government for selling drugs online and illegally earning 36 Bitcoin through his illicit activities. At the time, the price of Bitcoin was around $3,600, so his crypto stash was worth about $130k.
The court settled for a fine of $130,000, confiscated the Bitcoin, and sentenced the accused to two years in prison.
So far, pretty normal… Crime → Busted → guy loses everything and goes to jail.
🤔 Here’s where it gets…Interesting
Fast forward two years. The accused is released from prison.
Swedish authorities decided it was finally time to sell the seized BTC to pay the fine.
That’s when they realized….Bitcoin was worth more than before…. A LOT more.
The problem: the fine everyone agreed upon was valued in USD, at $130,000.
And since the price of Bitcoin had skyrocketed to over $45,000, $130,000 was equal to just three bitcoins.
😱The outcome
The Swedish government was legally obliged to return the remaining 33 bitcoins around ~$1.5 million to the drug dealer.
The accused must be an experienced monopoly player because this is a get out of jail free card if I have ever seen one…
2 years in a Swedish prison. Only to get released, making $1.5 million in the process.
*This image is not of a real person. Any resemblance to a real person living or deceased is purely coincidental*
📚Lessons learned
The prosecutor who handled the case, admitted that she made a mistake by not specifying the amount of bitcoins in the settlement. She said that this case was the first of its kind in Sweden and that it taught her valuable lessons about future crypto-related crimes.
She also suggested that the prosecution authority should invest in more education on cryptocurrencies, as they will become more prevalent in criminal cases.
This case is not the first time that authorities have faced challenges with seizing and selling cryptocurrencies from criminals. In 2018, Bulgarian authorities seized over 200,000 bitcoins from an organized crime ring but reportedly lost track of them.
In 2020, Irish authorities auctioned off over 6,000 bitcoins seized from a drug dealer but missed out on millions of dollars due to the rising price of Bitcoin.
Moral of the story… Don’t deal drugs, deal Bitcoin.
The Magic Crypto Ball 🔮
😐The U.S. Federal Reserve has decided to hold off on interest rates. The good news: no hike this month. The bad news: Jerome Powell hinted there could be another hike by the end of the year.
💵PayPal launched its stablecoin (PYUSD) for payments and transfers on Venmo. The new feature is only available for select users but will be rolled out to everyone in the next few weeks.
🇺🇸The U.S. House Financial Services Committee advanced a bill that would ban the Fed from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The bill still has a long way to go before getting fully approved, but it’s a small win in the mean time
🚀Grayscale applied for a new Ethereum futures ETF. According to the filing, the fund would only deal in futures vs. transacting with ETH directly.
🇨🇳How China’s crackdown on crypto mining is affecting the global hash rate and energy consumption
🖼️ Epic games makes an epic leap in to NFT games
Ryan Turnbull
Introducing Ryan Turnbull, a passionate Australian Chief Vibe Officer at Wizardia. Among many things, Ryan builds Wizardia’s community, creates captivating live streams, forms partnerships with other web3 projects, and produces engaging video and blog content. With his expertise, Ryan introduces crypto gaming to both masters and beginners, fostering a vibrant, exciting and supportive environment.
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