Finland’s Customs Agency Selling Confiscated Bitcoins To Help Ukraine

Finland says it will donate “tens of millions” of euros generated from the sale of confiscated Bitcoin in order to provide financial support for Ukraine.

According to a report by Euronews, Finland’s finance minister has announced a plan to support Ukraine’s war effort against Russia via the sale of confiscated cryptoassets. The country currently holds 1,981 Bitcoin, worth nearly €75 million, which were seized by Customs officials during criminal investigations. 

Finnish finance minister Annika Saarikko tweeted that the government will donate “tens of millions” to help Ukraine, calling the decision “right and proper.”

A statement released by Finnish Customs said that it had selected digital asset firms Coinmotion and Tesseract to conduct the sale of the confiscated Bitcoin. Both firms are located in Finland and satisfy the government agency’s anti-money laundering and know-your-customer guidelines. 

Several sources told Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that the donation to Ukraine would represent a “significant proportion” of the total Bitcoin sale. 

Saarikko says the donation will take time to be finalized, with the plans first being presented to the country’s parliament and supplementary budget.

Finland’s Customs agency originally announced a plan to auction off cryptoassets last year, with the majority of the obtained Bitcoin coming from a 2016 bust, during which 1,666 BTC was confiscated. 

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