In Bulgaria the reserve of Bitcoin is higher than that of gold

The news coming from Bulgaria it seems destined to cause some amazement in financial circles. The Eastern European country, in fact, it has a reserve in Bitcoin higher than the golden one, thanks to the holding of approximately 200 thousand tokens, for a consideration of approximately 2 billion dollars, against the approximately 40 tons and a half of the precious metal, whose market value currently corresponds to about 1,8 billion dollars. It is therefore the first country in the world to achieve this result, which will only please the proponents of digital assets.

The result of a seizure

However, it should be stressed that the holding of BTC it is not the result of a real decision coming from the political and financial authorities of Sofia, but of a fairly sensational case report. The fact dates back to May of 2017, when a press release from the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC) announced the confiscation of more than 200 thousand Bitcoins by the Bulgarian authorities, during a police operation aimed at dismantling a local criminal gang.

In practice, the members of the gang had taken steps to invest the proceeds of their illegal operations in cryptocurrencies, deluding themselves into making them no longer traceable. At the time of the seizure, the valuation of the most important virtual currency sailed around 2350 dollars, for an estimated value at the time around half a billion, which, however, with the passage of time has constantly risen up to the current levels, bringing the total to over two billion.

Since then, however, nothing has been known about the tokens, for a decision taken by the judiciary itself, aimed at preserving the still open judicial proceedings.

Bulgaria and digital assets

It should also be stressed that it is certainly not the first time that the small Eastern European state has jumped to the headlines for facts relating to the digital economy. He did it for example towards the end of 2017 when the press had published news about Bitcoin and Altcoin mining sites, especially on the 0301 farm. In Bulgaria, in fact, electricity costs around a third of the average of Italy and the most advanced EU countries and this makes the country a real pole of attraction for those who want to invest in virtual coin extraction processes.

An activity that is particularly active in the area of Kremikovtzi, a few tens of kilometers from the capital Sofia, a place that once housed the factories where iron was transformed, a mineral absent from Bulgarian territory.

With the end of communism, the area has lost its productive settlements and has become poorer, as is evident from the industrial skeletons left in memory of the past. In a panorama of this kind, some Italian entrepreneurs have arrived to indicate the way to try to improve their fate, in fact giving life to a mining farm. An activity that at the moment, at least on the old continent, has little competition, practically limited to Iceland, where, however, the high cost of labor corresponds to the low cost of energy.