The United Kingdom accumulates 61,245 bitcoin so far, product of seizures.
There are concerns about a possible debt crisis in the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom government evaluates to sell more than 61,000 bitcoin (BTC) seized in police operations with the aim of reducing its growing fiscal deficit. The Minister of Finance, Rachel Reeves, plans to raise at least 5,000 million pounds sterling through this operation.
The proposal It occurs in increasing pressure to balance public accounts, before a context of expensive indebtedness and low economic growth.
Bitcoin that would be put on sale come from various operations against financial crimes during the last decade. The most representative case occurred in 2018, when the police unwary 61,000 BTC, linked to a mass fraud scheme operating from the United Kingdombut originating in China.
To that sum have been added subsequent seizures, and according to data from Bitcintreasuries, the United Kingdom accumulates Currently 61,245 BTC, as seen below.
The value of the total bitcoin in the hands of the United Kingdom today exceeds 7,270 million dollars, considering that the current price of the asset is around $ 117,000 per unit. The price has doubled in the last year, partly due to favorable regulatory changes in the United States and the massive institutional adoption of the most important digital asset in the world.
In that sense, the Interior Ministry has begun to design an official storage and realization system that will safely manage custody and eventual liquidation of digital assets, reports The Telegraph. Currently, BTC sales and other seized digital currencies are administered by police forces under specific operational protocols. However, The fiscal pressure has reactivated the interest of the Treasury to institutionalize this process.
The idea of monetizing these assets seeks to give oxygen to public finances. Various economists estimate that Reeves must find between 15,000 and 20,000 million pounds sterling before October to deal with the deficit. High interest rates, driven by persistent inflation, have raised the cost of loans. Meanwhile, the option of uploading taxes is also on the table.
Germany offers a recent precedent. That country sold 50,000 bitcoin last year when the price was around $ 57,000. The operation generated income of 2,850 million dollars. If he had waited for the current price, he would have raised 5,850 million. The difference, of 3,000 million, shows the operational urgency and the lack of long -term strategy.
If the United Kingdom decides to follow that path, it could repeat German history, selling below the future potential of the asset. In spite of this, it seems that from that country they see in the sale a pragmatic solution in the face of the rigidity of the budget and the political limitations to increase taxes generalized.
