Authorities in Finland have confiscated roughly 2,000 bitcoins (BTC) in raids since 2016 – but they don\'t know what to do with them. With the volatility of the cryptocurrency market, especially over the 2017/18 year-end period, the value can fluctuate by amounts up to $20m. At the height of the price spike, the BTC were worth nearly $40m, but now stand at about $22.5m.

The Finnish government released some cryptocurrency storage guidelines on February 20th, which make it clear that the coins can\'t be stored on a cryptocurrency exchange, but must be kept offline. Especially since the thefts of cryptocurrency from exchanges by hackers, it has become increasingly the norm for coins to be put in cold storage, on a hardware wallet kept in a safe place. The Helsinki customs office, which has been storing them up to now, declined to specify what storage method they have been using.

The Finnish Treasury\'s new guidelines state that cryptocurrency can\'t generally be treated as fiat money, used as an investment, or accepted as a means of payment. The seized funds could, however, be converted into fiat currency (euros) once a court has ruled on their appropriation and it becomes binding. The 2,000 BTC Euro equivalent could then be sold at public auction.