Bulgaria seized earlier this year roughly $3 billion worth of bitcoins in an anticurruption campaign...




Bulgarian law enforcement jointly worked with the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELC), a regional organization comprised of 12 member states, to bust a sophisticated organized-crime network, arresting twenty-three Bulgarian nationals and seizing a total of 213,519 bitcoins.

 

SELC described the organized-crime scheme as the hacking of Bulgarian Custom’s computers and allowing those associated with the group to skip fees for importing goods into the country. To make it work, the group recruited corrupt Customs officers to upload a virus into government machines, so that hackers could establish remote access.

The organized criminal group consisted in Bulgarian nationals having connections in The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Hellenic Republic, Romania and Republic of Serbia. The modus operandi used was recruiting corrupted Customs officers in all involved countries with the purpose to infiltrate a virus in the Customs’ computerized systems. Once the virus installed, from distance, the offenders were able to finalize various transports, as in the Customs’ system appeared that the cargo was already checked and passed. 
Further, SELC provided details of how the operation was conducted, involving a large-scale search of “more than 100 addresses, suspects, and vehicles.” Out of the 23 suspects arrested, 5 of them were Bulgarian Customs officers. Police seized “equipment, devices for communication, computers, tablets, and bank documents.”

Bulgarian authorities have searched more than 100 addresses, suspects and vehicles. A large quantity of money was seized, as well as equipment, devices for communication, computers, tablets, bank documents, etc. 23 suspects were arrested, 5 of them acting as Bulgarian Customs officers. As result of this criminal activity the damages recorded by the Customs Agency, only for year 2015, is around 10 million Leva.

Here is where things get interesting... Police also seized 213,519 bitcoins, at the time, worth $500 million. As of writing this article, the amount seized, is now worth approximately 3,676,583,661, according to CoinDesk.


As well, up to now were found in the virtual space bitcoin wallets of the main suspects with a total value of 213,519 bitcoins. As a reference, the value of one bitcoin is rating to 2354 USD. The offenders choose the bitcoin way of investing/saving the money, because it is rather difficult to be tracked and followed. 
SELC explained why the criminals used bitcoin,

The offenders choose the bitcoin way of investing/saving the money, because it is rather difficult to be tracked and followed.
What remains a mystery to most, is what the Bulgarian government will do with the seized bitcoins? As mentioned in the beginning, the national debt could certainly be reduced. Have we just discovered a large seller that is ready to pour cold water on the party?


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-08/bulgaria-government-shocked-discover-it-owns-3-billion-bitcoin

Bitcoin cash developers have made "tentative" plans to increase the cryptocurrency's block size again next year.

According to a new six to 12-month roadmap released by the bitcoin offshoot's main developer team, Bitcoin ABC. The roadmap notably includes two hard forks – an upgrading method that requires everyone running the software to upgrade – scheduled for May and November of 2018.

https://www.bitcoinabc.org/bitcoin-abc-medium-term-development

According to TASS, the central bank's annual Financial Stability Report noted an apparent bubble in the cryptocurrency markets, stating that it may lead to "substantial losses" for investors.

The report also stated that cryptocurrencies may be used for criminal activities, in particular for money laundering and terrorism financing.

The report continued on to declare that:

    "The task of national and supranational regulators is to minimize those risks via developing a coordinated approach to regulation of the cryptocurrencies market and restricting the potential of high-risk investments and transactions."

http://tass.com/economy/977847

NY based Chainalysis, an analytics firm, has published a study stating nearly 4 million bitcoins are lost forever.

The study points to wallets that were created, and miners, from the days when bitcoin was only worth pennies or low dollar amounts.

Years ago when people had 20 bitcoins in a wallet and they were worth a total $10 - people weren't so concerned with keeping their wallet/key saved and safe.

Chainalysis says the years of 2009-2010 are when the vast majority of the coins were lost.

But even more shocking, while the early nearly worthless bitcoins were lost at a percentage between 15%-20% - they estimate up to 2% loss rate for 2017.

http://www.globalcryptopress.com/2017/11/shocking-study-up-to-4-million-bitcoins.html

Former SpaceX internet Sahil Gupta wrote a blog post in which he claimed that Elon Musk was "probably" the inventor of bitcoin, the post was then strategically sent to press to pump the cryptocurrency.

Musk replied today, not only denying that, but also stating that he does not hold any bitcoins!!

Replying on the articles, Musk tweeted:

Not true. A friend sent me part of a BTC a few years, but I don’t know where it is.

How many days it took Bitcoin to get from:

$0      - $1000: 1789 days
$1000 - $2000: 1271 days
$2000 - $3000: 23 days
$3000 - $4000: 62 days
$4000 - $5000: 61 days
$5000 - $6000: 8 days
$6000 - $7000: 13 days
$7000 - $8000: 14 days
$8000 - $9000: 9 days