Yahoo Finance Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products.
Police seize approximately $158 million in UK's largest crypto seizure
To date, the biggest global seizure is tied to dark web marketplace Silk Road.
Police in the UK have seized approximately £114 million (about $158 million) worth of cryptocurrencies as part of a money laundering investigation. London’s Metropolitan Police told Sky News the seizure is the largest of its kind in UK history.
The current global record is tied to dark web marketplace Silk Road. In 2020, the US Department of Justice recovered 69,000 Bitcoins, worth approximately $1 billion at the time, Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht had stashed away. The Metropolitan Police didn’t say the kind of cryptocurrencies they recovered, nor did it reveal exactly how it traced the money. Both those amounts could be dwarfed by the nearly $3.6 billion in Bitcoin that’s missing following the disappearance of two brothers who founded a cryptocurrency exchange in South Africa.
