Tenerife’s ITER approached bitcoin for research purposes.
Juan José Martínez, innovation advisor, stated that the profits will be reinvested in projects.
The Institute of Technology and Renewable Energy (ITER), an organization dependent on the Cabildo de Tenerife – the island administration responsible for the government of the largest Canary Island, Spain – is preparing to sell the 97 BTC it purchased in 2012 for only 10,000 euros (EUR).
As explained by the innovation advisor of the Cabildo, Juan José Martínez, The institution has faced technical and legal obstacles for years to complete the sale. This is due to the absence of specific regulation and the reluctance of several banking entities to operate with cryptocurrencies.
At the time of writing this note, the funds in question, acquired more than ten years ago, have a value of 9.2 million euros. This figure is equivalent to just over ten million dollars (USD), a figure a thousand times higher than the initial investment.
Currently, ITER is holding talks with a financial entity authorized by the Bank of Spain and the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), with the aim of completing the transaction in the coming months.
The funds obtained, Martínez announced, will be allocated entirely to new projects research and development of the technology center.
The institute had acquired bitcoin for research
He institute’s interest in bitcoin did not respond for investment purposes when he made the purchase, but was part of an experimental project on cryptocurrency networks.
“It was one of the many investigations carried out by ITER to study emerging technological systems,” explained Juan José. Currently, the organization also develops lines of work in quantum technology and other cutting-edge fields.
Although the former president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, questioned the transparency of cryptocurrency operations at the time, the current innovation advisor defended that, given the experimental nature of the purchase, “the logical thing is to sell them now that their value has multiplied and reinvest in the institute itself.”
If this sale were to take place, the case would find parallels with decisions such as that of the German government, which in 2024 sold 50,000 BTC seized for criminal activities just before the great price spike. As CriptoNoticias reported, at that time Germany obtained about USD 2.9 billion from the sales, but if it had maintained its holdings, today they would be worth more than USD 5.13 billion.