If you are currently looking to snatch up some Bitcoins but would like to pay slightly less than the current market prices, I have a solution for you.
First, move to South Korea.
Second, attend local police auction.
Third, purchase Bitcoins at said auction for slightly below current market prices.
Forth, profit.
Wait, did you say buy Bitcoins at a local police auction?!
Yes, yes I did...
Here's the backstory...
Back in 2016 a large number of Bitcoins were confiscated during a criminal investigation. According to reports, roughly 216 Bitcoins were seized during a cyber investigation by the South Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency (try saying that three times fast).
During the investigation a 33 year old man was arrested for operating an "obscenity website". I am not sure what that means, but it sounds obscene.
The coins that were confiscated are worth roughly $531,000 (USD) currently with Bitcoin trading at $2,458 dollars per coin.
This would be the first time I have ever heard of Bitcoins being auctioned off at some sort of police auction.
According to the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), this is the first auction of it's kind.
KAMCO is the county's asset management company that oversees state-owned properties/development, and any seized financial assets (which would include virtual currencies). The virtual currencies are considered financial assets and would now become government property and are subject to public auctions.
By law 3% of the proceeds from the sale of the digital currencies will be returned to the South Korean Government.
So, the buyer can get coins below market price (presumably), and the government gets to keep a cut for their troubles.
Sounds like a win for everybody!
Well except for the obscenity website guy, but that is a topic for another day.
This auction comes at a time when virtual currency markets have been booming in Asia and South Korea in particular as of late.
The Bithumb, Korbit, and Coinone exchanges have seen record breaking trading volume over the last several weeks. Plus the South Korean won has now jumped into the top couple spots in terms of Bitcoin global trading volumes.
As you can see, what was once mostly dominated by US dollar trading has now seen a massive increase in Yen, Yuan, and Won denominated currencies:
(The chart on the left shows the volume by exchanges and the chart on the right shows the currency dollar volume transacted.)
South Korea still isn't that large of a slice but if you take a look at this same chart from a couple months ago, you wouldn't even see South Korea on the chart.
To further put things into perspective, if you looked at a similar chart a few years ago, you would see that the USD had a strangle hold on the transactions.
All in all, while this might not be the most realistic way to get your hands on some cheaper Bitcoins, I thought it was interesting never the less. Hope you all were able to take something from it as well.
Stay informed my friends!
Sources:
https://bitcoincharts.com/charts/volumepie/
http://www.coindesk.com/south-korean-government-to-auction-216-bitcoins/
Images:
https://news.bitcoin.com/hacked-korean-bitcoin-exchange-yapizon-offers-ious/
https://bitcoincharts.com/charts/volumepie/
Follow me: @jrcornel
I didn't know that. Thanks!
How is the police sure the Bitcoins belong to the man? How were they able to stop anyone from using them? As much as I'm happy for your deal I am very curious about this whole story.
There's a link above to the story. I have heard of a few instances now of police auctioning off BTC from the proceeds of crime. I don't know that they'd be going that cheap though as just last month Koreans were paying 200$ - 500$ dollars above the price paid in the west on the Korean exchanges, so the normal price would be a nice discount for them. I saw a guy making 20000$ /day on the abitrage.
That's a crazy level of arbitrage. Good for him if that's the case.
And I don't see the point of doing all suggestions just to purchase at discounted price bitcoin.
With all the hassle, it's better to simply buy in exchange.
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I have 2 questions:
If price of Bitcoin is higher than other part of the world, why there is seems to be no trader buying big from other country and see in S.Korea? Even with a peraonal trip to sell a physical wallet, I think it is still every profitable.
Is there any restriction on selling bitcoin in S. Korea? Wonder why S.Korea ppl buy from outside and sell domestic.
Interesting!
That is a smart way to convert crime into profit for the authorities.
And it does seem to be a win win scenario.
Checking flight tickets to SK :P
Haha yes it is. Same here ;)
wow!
really!
I'm posting this at my Kakao story!
and sending my students, too!
are they the physical ones?
wauwww! jack pot!
WOW the upvote you gave yourself last week is now worth 63 bucks !! niiice man! Happy for you! yay HF19 :D
216 Bitcoins for auction in South Korea....
Over 44,000 Bitcoins were auctioned in the U.S. after Silk Road was shut down. Only whales participated in that.
Nice one...i guess we have to visit Korea
Good publication !! Very interest
Very nice post!
Are you sure Korea wants me?
The US Govt auctioned off confiscated BTC from alleged Silk Road (dark web market) operators, so BTC auctions on behalf of a nation are not off the table in most countries if said BTC is alegedly resulting from a crime.
Wow, that's interesting! Thanks!
Buying my plane ticket!
LOL
Your article raises a good question beyond Korea. Other governments use civil asset seizure laws and proceeds of crime legislation to steal sometimes legal property. One has to "prove" one came by the assets legally - and governments have lots of time and resources to make getting ones property back a losing option. It'll be perplexing for those states that don't consider crypto currencies as money... How can "they" seize assets they claim don't exist? Ahhhh.... the Orwellian doublespeak of it all. At one time we thought dystopian societies were science fiction - now we find ourselves allowing our political "representatives" to incrementally shift us to, not Utopia but Dystopia. And so it goes...
That would be nice to buy some of that bitcoin. Too bad i'm not going to south korea anytime soon.
great opportunity to invest now????
Steemit It will, give back the rewards to the people and not to the big Companies !
Side note
Isn't btc going for 4500 over there?
On some exchanges it is quite elevated compared to US exchanges yes. I would imagine the auction will be done in terms of local prices but perhaps they will use the global average? Good thoughts...
Yes, the Bitcoin price in South Korea is quite higher than elsewhere, so I don't think there would be any profit in going there.
Unless if it's cheaper than their markets prices
Yes the article mentioned possibly getting the coins lower than market prices, what market prices those are specifically is left for interpretation. :)
I guess it only works out good if you live in South Korea.
A whale will probably read this article and will book a flight to South Korea and will start doing research on this for sure. I've read about other people doing this in the US as well. I think it was one of Apple's founders if i'm not mistaken.
please upvote, reply, resteem and follow @victorvazco thank you, you're awesome !
I knew that before but i think it can not do that. because the different price is too much, not easy to take that.
The prices might drop even further around August following the fork! Tread carefully!
Gentlemen shall we then pack our bags and baggages to South Korea.
great article, keep up the great work.
vote for me, https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@sara21/mi-presentacion-de-lo-que-me-gusta-en-mis-tiempos-libres
Hopefully that isn't me!
Think they will sell as 1 big lot or in multiple parts?
very interesting.
looking forward to the day this being possible in europe too.
Very interesting, dear friend @jrcornel, never heard this, thank you very much for this interesting information and news.
I take this opportunity to wish you an excellent weekend
Its a shame you have to buy virtual currency in person :(
Ironic isn't it?!
Finally, some gov't auctions selling off bitcoin. About time!...lol ;-)
Unique post, I like it! Resteemed and Upvoted. (:
Sounds obscene but a traditional strategy!
Good stuff. Korea is well ahead of the rest of us by the looks of it. Here at the police auctions all you get are "instruments of crime" aka boltcutters.
It's about time!
I guess I am out of the criteria, I am not in Korea :-( upvoted and followed
Sa traiti Domnu Cornel
VA Multumesc Pentru informatii
Definitely upvoted! I can't believe bitcoins were seized this i something i would only expect to hear out of a movie plot lol. thank you very much for sharing.
I am your new follower
If I lived in the region and there was enough at stake it might be worth it. My proximity makes this a difficult proposition, even if I had more than a beginner's level of expertise with BTC.
Wow this is epic information. Thank you so much. I am going to have a couple of my South Korean friends get to work o weeee
It will be hard for me to get to Korea.
Haha you and me both!
will have to try this out. Good post.
wait wait wait.. am i the only one callin BS on this one???
thank you for good posting.
Thanks for posting! I just find this amazing how Bitcoin has been adopted in the world. It's crazy to see where it ends up and now it's even in police auctions.
I'll buy a million worth to see how it pans out and if I like what I see I'll buy 100 million worth, thanks.
I'm on poloniex now. Maybe I should be on expedia instead? Interesting...
Dam crazy story!!
I post the latest in the meme war and some economic news stories follow me If ya dare
I am a Korean. This is a true story.
I honestly thought you were simply a person trying to sell a few bitcoins and didnt want to have to pay a fucking 2 percent or 10 percent markup! We should ONLY buy and sell bitcoins at SPOT from OTHER steemit users! When I need to sell a large amount of bitcoin for cash, I wont use a BTC atm or even a LBC dealer both five percent and i wont use coinbase at 2 percent no i will get 0 percent and get EXACTLY the amount of bitcoin that its worth! and when YOU want to BUY bitcoin, you can come to me, or someone else on steemit who needs to cash out some bitcoin, and Vica Versa! When you want to BUY bitcoins, just offer to cash Out someones bitcoin!
this was we can always get SPOT prices for bitcoin! Steemit users should NEVER pay more than spot for bitcoin!!!!
Lets create our own private text based exchange where we Mine our own Bitcoin (or just convert steem we mine) and allow user of steemit to always connect WITH EACH OTHER instead of PAYING to buy or sell bitcoin!
dont look at it as buying or sellling! Look at it as TRADING! Your just TRADING dollars for bitcoin! Or Bitcoin for dollars!
There will ALWAYS be someone on steemit who needs to buy bitcoin and there will always be someone who needs to sell bitcoin! Sometimes theres alot more buyers than sellers, but we can handle that by buying reserves of bitcoin (or converting steem wwe mine into bitcoin at exchanges for cheap)
So This post can serve as a place you can place an"order" by leaving a comment requesting if you want to Buy Bitcoin or Sell Bitcoin (Or Ethereum but once u have bitcoin getting ethereum for cheap is easy using shapeshift poloniex bittrex etc)
Now just check this post and reply to a comment you find where someone needs bitcoin! or someone needs cash! And just reply and say "Hey you have cash and need bitcoin, i have bitcoin and need cash , lets trade"
and we should only do this with trusted active steemit users who call me up and I will vet the over the phone. I have found that if someone is not willing to call and talk over the phone, they shouldnt be trusted. But we wont be strangers!
This can be for people who already know each other!
Then you