German authorities held an auction to sell Bitcoin seized by law enforcement, prompting people to take action to buy the cryptocurrency at a discount.
The minimum bid required in the auction, which began Monday and was announced by the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Justice, was €42,400 ($49,197), according to Bloomberg.
In Monday’s trading session, Bitcoin managed to climb above $63,000, up nearly 5%. The first bidder in the auction offered 56,060 euros ($65,010).
According to a report translated by Süddeutsche Zeitung, a daily newspaper published in Munich, a number of cryptocurrencies were seized in connection with various crimes, including cybercrime on the Darknet. Then, on Monday, tens of millions of euros worth of Bitcoin went public.
An announcement about the auction on Twitter turned into a frenzy as 4,000 new users signed up for the auction platform, Bloomberg reported. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung report, the proceeds will go to the treasury of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Authorities need to hold an auction for cryptocurrency, as they do for other large assets owned by law enforcement, such as luxury cars and helicopters. Authorities in Germany’s largest state have confiscated tens of millions of euros worth of Bitcoin over the years.