German police seize 50,000 Bitcoins worth nearly $2.2 billion linked to a pirate website

German police have seized 50,000 bitcoins worth about $2.17 billion linked to a pirated website accused of copyright infringement, marking the largest-ever cryptocurrency seizure by German law enforcement, police said in a statement.
German police, along with the FBI, the Federal Criminal Police Office and a Munich-based forensic technology specialist firm, investigated the pirated website and the two individuals who run it, according to the statement.
The two defendants, a 40-year-old German man and a 37-year-old Polish man, are accused of being involved in running the pirate website, which operated until May 2013.
Authorities charged the two individuals with violating copyright laws and launched an investigation into commercial money laundering.
Police said the two individuals used proceeds from the site to purchase bitcoins, and one of the individuals voluntarily handed the bitcoins over to authorities.
Authorities have not yet announced what they will do with the seized Bitcoin.
Last week, the U.S. government issued a notice that it would sell $130 million worth of Bitcoin seized from the Silk Road darknet marketplace.
The U.S. government also seized 120,000 bitcoins in connection with the Bitfinex exchange hack in 2016. Arkham data shows that the total value of bitcoins currently held by the U.S. government is $9.22 billion.