The current position of French politicians and French government officials on BTC remains deleterious. After an enticing statement issued by Bruno Le Maire-Finance Minister of France about cryptocurrencies enabling crime and money laundering, the popularity of the BTC and other crypto assets has declined in France. However, some politicians Like Jean Michael Mis have been campaigning for the Banque De France to invest in Bitcoin as a foreign investment.
The agency has made contact with a private auction house to arrange for a massive BTC public bidding. The first report of this auction was made public by a French publication by the name of Cyberguere.
Is France Trying to Auction Stolen Crypto Assets?
GateHub is a crypto wallet and platform for the Internet of Value (IoV) that allows its users to store different types of assets like fiat money and cryptocurrencies on XRP Ledger. The GateHub XRP Ledger protocol is supported by a decentralized exchange protocol called DeFi. In June 2019, this platform was affected by a massive cyber hijack attack. In the aftermath of this hijack, 23 million XRP coins were stolen. This amounts to a total of $10 million worth of damages.
The thread of this hijack has finally ended with the French officials auctioning off the Bitcoin conversions from these stolen XRP tokens. According to Cyberguere, Kapandji Moerhange is to organize public bidding for 611 BTC on behalf of The French Agency for the Recovery and Management of Seized and Confiscated Assets (AGRASC). AGRASC is allowing bidding admission to participants who have registered before March 13th deadline. The current price for this bidding is valued at $34.2 million.
The US Government officials have also arranged for a small BTC bidding in the ongoing month. This news was first brought to public attention by Bloomberg. The report states that federal officials of the US government are set to auction off 0.7501 Bitcoin. This bid listing has been published on the GSA-General Services Administration, which is the official bidding site under the administration of the US central government.
The market value of auctioned BTC is around $38,700. However, it is known that the first bid for this auction is $25,000. Any US government agency or officials have not disclosed the origins of this BTC thus far. The auction would be held on March 15th, 2020, in Atlanta, Georgia. The bidders would have to submit a Forfeited Property Sales Certification Form to ascertain that they are not under the employment of the Department of Justice. The qualified bidders are also required to provide a Bitcoin End User Certificate with their name, social security number, Bitcoin wallet address, and personal information.
