Movie2K pirates might have $5B in BTC left that police “failed to seize”

While Germany managed to seize and sell billions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin (BTC) from Movie2K’s operators, it now seems that an even larger stash may have been overlooked.

Blockchain analysts at Arkham Intelligence claim that German police failed to seize more than 45,000 BTC (worth $5.02 billion), which is apparently still being held in wallets linked to Movie2K, a film piracy platform.

As previously reported to Cybernews.com, in early 2024, one of the suspects transferred nearly 50,000 BTC to wallets controlled by Germany’s federal criminal police.

"We found another cluster of bitcoin connected to earlier Movie2K movements and addresses totaling approximately 45,000 BTC. This is most likely still under the control of the Movie2K operators. It has not moved since 2019 and is split across more than 100 Bitcoin wallets," Arkham said.

The analysts noted that Germany made no mention of this additional BTC and did not include it in the “emergency sale,” which raised $2.89 billion but would now be worth $5.56 billion.

Data from the blockchain intelligence platform shows that the BTC portfolio tied to Movie2K is now valued in USD at nearly the same level it reached at its 2021 peak (around $6.2 billion), thanks to rising bitcoin prices since the seizures.

As previously reported, two men were accused in August 2020 of distributing more than 880,000 illegal film copies between autumn 2008 and May 2013. They operated the illegal streaming service on Romanian servers and began buying BTC on a large scale in mid-2012.

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Meanwhile, in July 2024, the Dresden public prosecutor’s office said it had decided, as part of a so-called emergency sale, to promptly sell BTC transferred by the accused due to the risk of a significant loss of value of around 10% or more.

At the time, however, the prosecutors emphasized that in an emergency sale, “any price speculation or waiting for rising prices is prohibited for a law enforcement agency.” Had prosecutors kept the seized BTC, it would now be worth 92% more.