Topic: Finland sold 1,900 BTC, for a good cause (Read 663 times)

They are following, or rather they are helping on their own not even knowing about this particular case. Look at the news:



And that was when only the second week of the war had begun. I don't know the exact number for all crypto donations up to date, but it's surely tens of millions of USD worth, being spend on bulletproof vests, helmets, medical supplies and other things needed for our resistance, for defending our country and freedom. Thank you, Finland. Thank you, world.

Right, I don't think people will hold bitcoin forever. Because it is useless if no one uses it when need. Traders hold Bitcoin for profit and a time must convert it to fiat. I am aware of the uses of bitcoin, but at some point it has to be exchanged for fiat.

I believe they still has the option to donate with bitcoins. But, they sold it for donation, I don't take it negatively. It's necessary to exchange it with fiat to help the general peoples.

So for the tainted BTC to be cleansed, it needs to pass through the government's hands and let the government sell them  .  Anyway, it is good news and exposure for BTC, having Finland sold the said BTC amount for Ukraine's aid.


Humanity doesn't disappear, we can observe it in our daily lives, neighbor helping neighbors, good samaritans helping people in need, it happens daily if we observe around.  Probably we are too hook in our pcs and other gadgets to notice that  .  And I do hope that there are more governments to participate in Ukraine's aid.  It is really a huge blow, dealing both with the pandemic and war.

When I saw all the initiatives in some people on the forum to ask for BTC and donate it to Ukraine, I was very happy, because they are suffering a lot, and I am even more happy because a member of the local Spanish section spread the word and is involved in helping them , that speaks of how noble his heart is and I hope that people continue to send lots of BTC to the most needy in that war, that many have died cruelly, I hope that this money helps them a lot and I hope that this senseless war ends And don't keep dying innocents.

Humanity exists, and what Finland have done once again proves it. As a user said, if they wait for the growth then we might loss big number of lives. According to me, support need to be done at the right time. Here Finland have done the best at the right occassion. Hope this will be followed by other countries too.

I think that the price of btc during the peak of the war is much lesser than the price what we have these days, so selling it now was still a good decision and we don't know what if the price will return again to 20k or below few days later? Btc is a currency so selling it because we need the money is one of its use cases. I don't see anything wrong with that but what is wrong if we will only hoard the btc and do nothing with it.

Also, another thing that is wrong is when you use your btc for illegal transactions. Wars might have subsided now in Ukraine but I think their country is still struggling to recover so they still need help financially.

As someone living in Ukraine right now, I disagree. We need money now. We need ammo now. We can't wait until BTC goes higher in price and then sell it. Not in our situation.

So, regarding the topic I can say only one thing: Thank you, Finland. It's acts such as this help us to stand against Putin's army of zombies.

As a bitcoiner, I don't see selling, especially selling in a bear market, as a positive use of bitcoin.

A better way would be to put it on auction. If they really wanted donate it, they could've sent in its original form, instead of feeding it to centralized exchanges.

The potential of bitcoin is big. The realisation about the market isn't found among all levels of people. There are people who have a misconception about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This will change slowly through such donation and charity done through bitcoin. This shows bitcoin can be used for good and bad, which is upto the user and not on its purpose. Finland have showcased how good bitcoin can be used, when there are illegal things happening with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin could be something amazing, bitcoin could be used to elevate the whole world but unfortunately it has no backing gets seen as a bad thing. There is no doubt that it would be a scary thing to invest the whole worlds economic infastructure, but at the end of the day if we could not do that, then we would have to at least use the best of this situation, it may not be the worlds greatest thing, but it is at least something as decent as we could hope for, and that would be like getting full-time crypto job instead of a fiat paying one, or like this donation, or whatever else you could think of that would make the world better by using bitcoin.

Not just them, but almost everyone who has a chance to take something for themselves did that, from top to bottom.


I wish I share your optimism but unfortunately I don't, and the fact that they are doing a much better job than anyone expected is not any proof of that. We did an excellent job too during our war (and all that without help outside, at least not at the beginning) and that didn't prevent thievery on mass scale, from our generals (who were selling gas to enemies) to politicians and since Ukrainians are probably similar to us when it comes to corruption, I don't think that its better situation there.

All this of course doesn't mean that people (and countries) shouldn't send help to Ukraine, but I am just being realistic as I've been old enough to see how it went in our country that was in a very similar situation.

It's good to see a super positive use of bitcoin. Especially when various countries are seeing bitcoin under a negative light due to its usage in money laundering or dark web, it's a refreshing news that a huge amount of bitcoin will be used in humanitarian aid.

It's so very kind of Finland to extend their support towards Ukraine in such a positive way. Good thing should receive good publicity and praises.

This is very good news Finland has taken a very good step. Ukraine is in great need of this money because the condition there has become very bad, in such a situation, helping Finland, the friendship of Ukraine and Finland has been encouraged and Russia will not like it at all, but bitcoin was used in it, which Finland has recovered from illegal business

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Right brother, Seeing this, it seems that everyone is standing in support of Ukraine.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

I believe it's an act of solidarity with Ukraine Because 1900 BTC worth $47 million was already a huge amount and it can do big in Ukraine's efforts to help their population that was heavily affected by this useless war, so all I can say is Finland has been doing a great job. Anyway, most western nations are already shown their support for the Ukraine effort, and for me, it is a good sign to pressure Russia to go back into the talks. 

Indeed, some people(including me in the past) don't see that, in fact, when someone is selling other people are buying at the same time. What would  be really "not a good thing" for BTC it's if no one wanted to buy.

Overall, I'm glad that this time Bitcoin is associated with something good(because helping Ukraine to fight against Russian aggression is definitely a good thing). Good job, Finland! 

But still two folds though, whether it will aid Ukraine and help those citizens or buy weapons I guess it's their call.

Maybe we have our own beliefs regarding this war, but we all agree that it didn't do any good overall. Not just for both nations, but we are all affected by it. I guess the relevancy for bitcoin is that it shows how it can be used, for "good" or "bad".

A really good cause indeed. If they've sold that earlier before the dump, it would have gone higher but it's still good enough. I just hope that everything will be sent directly to the country and for the need of its cause. Hopefully, there won't be any leak on that fund that will just go through straight to the pocket of the corrupt folks where that fund has to go. There have been a lot of donations and aid for that good cause from different countries and organizations and hopefully, all of those went to the correct recipients.

You probably mean all that money that was stolen from our emigrants and ended up in the private accounts of the same party that is still in power today and steals from its people to the same extent as before. But it is not only the thieves who are to blame, but also those who support them all the time.

There is no doubt that some of the aid will not be used as it should be, but I think that most of it will end up in the right hands. The proof is that Ukraine still manages to defend itself, even though on the other side stands the second strongest military power in the world (which I strongly doubt) after everything seen.

That's a good move from Finland. Bitcoin had got some negative mark with its usage on drugs and illegal usage on darkweb. Now the same being used for a good cause will make a change people's view over bitcoin. Already bitcoin donations were received by Ukraine and this too could help them. Russia needs to rethink and end the war, because financially Ukraine is falling down regularly amidst the support received from different countries around the world.

Because using money for weapons while your country is invaded is somehow a bad thing? You know the saying, "those who are reluctant to feed their own army will feed a foreign army".

I don't think that Finland would have any problems if all money is used for weapons since they already sent military equipment to Ukraine. After all, Finns experienced what Ukraine is going through now back in 1939 when USSR invaded their country and trust me, they didn't forget that.

this is some joke right?

1 - when someone takes bitcoin and buys drugs this person is committing a crime in addition to destroying his life, he is destroying the lives of many people with the drug he is selling

2 - russia invaded ukraine, so all ukraine has the right and duty to defend itself and people are supporting ukraine in terms of food and armament for ukraine to defend itself, how do you think ukraine will defend itself if they don't have weapons ? would you be suggesting that ukraine just stand by and do nothing? if that happens russia will win and will invade another country, one day will dominate the world! look at the history of dictators as they started, they always had a tendency to invade other countries and dominate the world

The only thing that matters is it didn't affect market at all, no downside for Bitcoin. I don't care how they spend their money coming from criminals, just don't be a hypocrite. They want to donate to Ukraine? Then do it. Don't expect what you do to be appreciated by everyone in the world.
That amount is pretty small for any country, so they should use it wisely. A country that still has limited resources and doesn't produce because of the war cannot straighten its back no matter what it does.

This is good intiative. Infact I feel not only bitcoin all the national reserves which are proceeds from what is caught during such crimes should be dealt in this manner only. It should be either donated for welfare of the people directly or should be used to educate people to avoid that crime in the future. If it is merged with the national treasury it's accountability is in entirely lost. I think it's a really good initiative by Finland but I don't know when will Ukraine's situation improve.

It's definitely a very kind gesture and shows yet again the amount of love that Scandinavian countries have for Ukraine in defeating Russia in this nonsensical war. As you say, it would have been nicer if they had been able to sell these funds when they were worth a lot more but it all helps. That is a large chunk to re-enter back into circulation and it seems like the criminals it was seized from will have no say in the matter. It would be nice to see all countries use these sort of seized assets in the same way, instead of potentially buying more equipment for their police forces and having a major conflict of interest like we see with some police forces in America.

I believe, Ukraine government will use this money to restore all the things they has lost during the war battle and also use the remaining ones to build a good environment for crypto users in the country to show that they value the offer. Ukraine economy will Wax up stronger very soon, because their government has been looking for this opportunity to come so that they can recover from the losses they experience between Russia and Ukraine that made the both countries economy to be affected negatively.

Good to know that seized funds from criminals using for good reason. I regret that war has not yet stopped. The world is encountering fluctuations due to this war. I don't support any war at all, so no fan of Russia or Ukraine. But need to help those who suffer from that war. And Finland seems to have taken the right decision to use seized Bitcoin for Ukraine. No matter if they sold and it affects Bitcoin price still feel proud as a Bitcoin fan.

Donation is not a bad idea anyways. I think Finland did a great humanitarian and charity work by making donation of such amount of money by selling of their Crypto assets so as to support Ukraine in their ongoing battle with Russia. I strongly suggest part of the donations be channeled into food provision as it could help sustain the Ukrainians and their soldiers in time of war because one needs  vitality and energy so as to engage in activities so as to be focused.
Now my second thought is this, though this amount traded was huge and I believe would have impact on the market. Currently speaking the market is gradually regaining from being bearish at this point in time trading such amount of coin at the instance don't you think it isn't quite a little bit more panicking.

There's no way on knowing on where those funds or donations would be applied on whether it would be used to be purchased weaponry or would be totally applied into its citizens that had been badly affected by the war? We know that it do really sucks when we know those funds would be used on other means but its their rights on how they would really be using it since its been donated then its up to theirs on what would
be their decision and this is a good move or deed indeed for Finland on having this kind of  donation which is the biggest one so far in crypto space.This amount will surely help a lot of those
people who are in Ukraine but just been said that we hope it would really be benefited out on a fair way.

The article clearly says that they were trying to sell off the coins early this year and was seeking help of brokers to sell off the coins and with the huge amount it is not that easy to find buyers that easily especially when you are dealing with a government. Instead they should have auctioned the coins just like the US does with these confiscated coins.

Once the coins are confiscated by the authority, it is not tainted anymore and the government of Finland does not necessarily need to donate them but their actions are commendable. This is not the first time any government is auctioning or selling off BTCitcoin ceased from drug transaction but this is the first time i am hearing a government giving away as a donation to another country.

Yeah, that's the reason why, it's the legal aspect of it and the bureaucracy involved.

It's easy for a country to send aid when it's in $ or euros as that's a sum, it's easy to give away stuff from government reserves but those were seized funds, so they couldn't just donate it randomly, they need to go through this to establish it's valued due to the origin of it for in case of a further or unexpected development in some of those cases. You could donate a car as it has a catalog value but you can't really donate shares in a company or assets that change their value by 50% between the two stamps on the paper.


Since when it's a criminal activity to help someone defend his country?


Oh, what a bad choice, getting weapons to stop Russians from killing people!
I wonder what would you choose if your home would get vandalized every night, people getting you new windows every day or a shotgun to get rid of the mofo who is terrorizing you?

It would be nice to know how the Ukrainian Gov. will use those $47 million... Because i have the feeling that they will be used more weapons and not for help the people affected by the war.

But is their call and they can use it as the way they want. But i don't like the idea at all of a ware powered by cryptos.

Maybe because those bitcoins were seized and they had to be sold, like anything else that governments seizes so I doubt that they can just send the bitcoin even if they wanted to.


I really doubt that 1900 BTC can impact the bitcoin price that much when bitcoin daily volume is ~40 billion dollars.


Regarding the aid that we received during the war, majority of it didn't reach those that actually needed help and while those who were assigned to distribute it got rich instead. My guess is that similar thing is happening in Ukraine with donated money and goods.  

It's a good initiative of Finland and I also admire its transparency. It's just so amazing that they're able to switch the seized money from crimes to help Ukraine which is suffering from the crisis of war. I hope more countries would initiate to do the same thing or even use the bloody money to help countries or suffering people. In our country, the authorities aren't transparent every time they seized drug-related crimes money. Some of them even reuse it for their drug-related business. That's the reason why the crime and drug rate is still increasing in our country.

@Baofeng @TimeTeller
But that was my whole point, we can't know. It would be enough to know it would help alleviate suffering but state to state assistance like this, unclear it's not to finance the war. My personal belief is you're really not helping the people who need it most when you're helping either side in the conflict itself.

It's not as simple as all that really, and again, pretty irrelevant to Bitcoin.

Selling 1,900 BTC at 24.736 USD is a better price than if they sold the coins right now, but a very bad price if you compare it to earlier this year or last year. Giving the money to Ukraine is a good way to help a country in need, and other countries should do similar things. What I am not sure about is why they didn't send the BTC instead of USD to Ukraine. Is Ukraine in need of short term cash? I thought that all the weapon shipments from the West are either free or part of a lend lease program that only needs to be repaid in many years to come. Because if Ukraine doesn't need the money right now it would have been much better to keep the BTC for now and convert it when they need the money. Long term Bitcoins is going to rise again and if they want to use the money for rebuilding Ukraine they would get a lot more from it.

Donating food and water I understand but rebuilding at this time makes no sense because I see on news every day that most of those Ukrainian Areas are still been heavily bombarded every day so how can rebuilding take place?
I don't think your comment is hard to read at all but who is actually doing the killing here? I believe that Ukraine is actually defending itself and the President and the people of Ukraine have not had any problem asking for help to DEFEND the Country which I believe the aid is about rather than the way you see it as "buying more classic weapons and kill more lives"

Most people look at war from the perspective of one country defending itself against another country that is attacking it - and any help to a country that is defending itself against invasion is justified for me personally. Whether that money will be used for food, medical supplies or military equipment is less important, as long as we know that it is donated to those in need.

My country was in a similar situation 30 years ago, but instead of any military aid, the world imposed sanctions on the import of weapons and much worse things happened than what we can see in Ukraine today.

There is no special role for Bitcoin here, because Finland sold something that was seized, and it could also have been gold, cash, or expensive cars - but Bitcoin has undoubtedly played a big role in helping Ukraine through the huge number of donations that have been made so far.

Good decision even though they wasted too much time as some of the posters above mentioned. Personally, I like Finland, but I have no clue about their government and their stance on cryptocurrencies.

However, they did help out Ukraine using crypto regardless of their own ulterior motives which is all that matters at the end of the day. I just hope that they sent the donation to the right people though.

Unfortunately this looks like they were selling during the crash because the average price for that sale seems to be around 24k USD. We haven't been anywhere near that price before and after the crash, somewhere between June 12 and 15th.

When I saw the price below 200 week MA I was asking myself who the hell is selling at these obvious lows. You have to be an idiot to wait for many months just sell it all at 70% below the top. Now we have the answer. Bankrupting lending services, Tesla, government of Finland...

I thought after seizing the Bitcoin, authorities will automatically have an auction to sell the Bitcoin.

IMO, that's a good cause and has a reason to sell their seized Bitcoin to donate to Ukraine.  But it might have an impact on the Bitcoin price and might be the reason why Bitcoin still struggling with its price to rise.  It's a great help to Ukrainian out there.

That's how to clean dirty Bitcoin after being seized by the government and donated to the country that most needed help.

Selling pressures from them? hehehe


Yeah perhaps they don't know what to do with this seized bitcoin, and someone come up of the idea of why not sold it for Ukraine? Win-win for them, the world will look at Finland and says good job, and then bitcoin being exposed again. Hopefully it will not used to buy weaponry, just the essentials, like food supply for those trap inside the war zone.

Maybe, people will appreciate that seized bitcoins are going to help somebody's country which is still at war.
At least, the bitcoins coming from illegal means can be used to assist Ukraine at this time of crisis.
Not in the pockets of politicians for the country that badly needs financial assistance.
Wherever they will use it, so long it can help alleviate the suffering of its people, that's more enough to know.

I think I saw Finland stating intentions to send money from seized cryptos to Ukraine earlier, and now it happened. It's a huge sum of money, and as a Ukrainian I am very grateful for this act of generosity. What I don't get, though, is similar to concerns expressed by others in the thread: why they badly needed to sell cryptos and donate the cash to Ukraine. Major Ukrainian foundations accept Bitcoin (such as Come Back Alive), and so does the official initiative by Zelensky United24 (albeit via a payment processor rather than directly onto a BTC address).
Okay, a couple of things here if you truly don't understand why Ukraine needs weapons. You're saying Finland should donate food and water. Well guess what? When people were starving in Mariupol and many occupied and sieged cities (and I'm speaking not just from what I've read on the news but from what I know from my relatives who experienced hunger during Russian occupation in March), Ukraine had plenty of food loaded on huge trucks, ready to be deployed to help Ukrainian citizens. But Russia did not let the humanitarian aid pass through for a long time in many places. Food and water are useless when there are Russians with guns and tanks on the road, not letting the food trucks reach those who need them. You know what gets rid of those Russians? Weapons. And as for rebuilding safe houses, the issue is that you can spend a lot on rebuilding, and then Russian missiles or artillery shelling will hit the area again, destroying everything you've worked for. And what helps getting rid of missiles and shelling? Again, weapons. So Ukraine needs weapons to solve humanitarian issues. Not because Ukrainians are so eager to take human lives, but because of incredibly inhumane acts by Russians that cannot be countered with food or safe houses.

All for helping, but cannot say for sure what this aid wi be for precisely. Not going to read too deep either but when I see it's "for the war", then that uncertainty is even more.

Even if it were a good cause, not for arms or violence etc., how this is good for Bitcoin, hard for me to see really ha.

That is a piece of very good news to see dirty money is going to spend on a good cause especially if it's about helping people from other country and they are having problems because they are at war with another county while they are not guilty and just victims of war. This is a really good move from, the Finland government but regardless of using the money for Ukraine, I guess Finland could avoid selling the bitcoin and donate bitcoins instead of exchanging it fiat and in this case, Ukrainian people could sell it themselves and use it for other purpose and could be more useful for them.

I'd add something more to this: it could look like they would be endorsing or at least advertising bitcoin.

Plus, I would not be surprised that some politicians may have been doing a great deal with some businessmen who bought the coins at such a great price (and will help the politicians with donations for next elections).

That was the first thing that came to my mind, because a direct BTC transaction would be the least complicated and fastest solution in the current situation. Apart from the reason mentioned by @mk4 (which makes sense), I would perhaps add that Finland did not want to send dirty Bitcoin as a donation, but rather wanted to clean it in some way - so even though that may not make much sense to us, the politicians, in addition to their ignorance still think differently about Bitcoin than most other people.

Be that as it may, those confiscated Bitcoins are in circulation again, and the money goes to help those who really need it at the moment. However, it should be taken into account that such a decision is not only humanitarian, but also political, given that all countries west of Ukraine know that a weak or defeated Ukraine brings war to their doorstep.

Seems like he only use Bitcoin as an investment rather than as a currency, while actually Satoshi's vision created Bitcoin is mainly as a decentralized currency that can't be blocked by any centralized party since it's work by peer to peer. Holding is good, but holding Bitcoin for entire your life is kind of selfish. Converting Bitcoin to fiat aren't always a bad decision because it can be a good deal if it's used for good thing like this donation.

With this help, you're give a chance for Ukraine citizens to live more longer and they might die if Finland didn't give this donation. Even you want to donate after 10 years when Bitcoin to the moon, your huge money can't revive someone which already dead.

Hopefully, it was because they were confiscated Coins from criminals and I guess that's why the Government needed those crypto brokers to make sure everything went well. I too thought of it that way, why didn't the Government just send the Bitcoins to the Ukrainian Government when the price was much higher and thought they probably needed them to be clean or maybe it wasn't that. Anyways it was a good gesture from the Finland Government.

Why? On the other end of the deal, you could say someone converted $47 million to 1,900 Bitcoin. It always works both ways, and chances are the coins are now distributed to many different individuals instead of centralizing them.

It might have been for a good cause, but it is definitely not a good thing for Bitcoin when large amounts of coins are converted to Fiat currencies. We also recently saw Tesla selling their coins... so things like this add up and it is pushing the price of Bitcoin down.... causing a downward spiral.

It is actually nice to see that some governments hoarded some coins, even if it was confiscated coins. They would have made a huge profit, if they held on to those coins, until it reached the next all-time-high price. 

The reason to not hold "tainted" bitcoin is so your funds wouldn't get locked when sending them to centralized exchanges and for you to not be a suspect in general. This obviously wouldn't matter if it's the government that's holding the "tainted" bitcoin.

Probably they just want to wash their hands with this tainted bitcoin? And then we look at it as somewhat the "right" thing to do for them, instead of just holding this bitcoin in their custody, at least they decided to donate it to Ukraine. And we are not sure if this is all the government of Finland is holding, those they confiscated, maybe there will still thousands at their position, just saying.

I have experienced firsthand the effect of war on people, their families and on everything about them. And during a period of war and conflict, any amount can go a long way. The $47 million donation will do a lot of good for the almost 5 million people according to the UN that have become refugees and over 7 million have been displaced in Ukraine. I wonder though why there was a delay in selling off the bitcoins back then in November 2021.

No one will see it the way you look at it.  Be silent now and just pretend its for good cause after all the article is not saying anything more than that.
But why is this coins not being in the auction instead. Drapper would be happy to bid more than $47M which more money sent as donation for Ukraine.

It should be for food really. There is no way they can win the war, they know it so its just pointless to send weapon but instead send food. Dying of hunger is worse than dying in war.

If I were to guess, probably the fact that donating the bitcoin directly would give the impression to the masses that bitcoin is actually useful, and the Finnish government might not like that.

I am curious why instead of selling Bitcoin to fiat or converting it to fiat currency like USD and donating, they directly use Bitcoin to donate?
There are some authorized or legit entities who are accepting Bitcoin as donation, especially the Ukraine government.
But overall, this is a good move also from Finland government, even they sold Bitcoin, there is still good use.

I'd personally avoid sending any donations to the regimes because they are already receiving billions of dollars and not doing anything for the people. If you want to make any donations you should find someone trustworthy in Ukraine (you can find a couple of users on bitcointalk) and send your donations directly their way instead.

Interesting to see how this is not bloody money since it was transacted for the drug related crimes.

I'm very happy to see that much amount of money going to Ukraine for better cause (or not may be used to buy weapons) which seems to similar criminal activity as well.

Finland should donate food, water and try to rebuild the safe houses with this money rather than just giving away this money.

Many of you find it hard to read what I am saying but think about this for a minute, drug related money is ceased, now it's being sent over to the country where war is on going and all that country would do is buy more classic weapons and kill more lives.

What kind of justice is that?

This is indeed a good cause. And I'm reflecting on the fungibility of Bitcoin in this case. All Bitcoins are equal. There is no single Bitcoin that is more Bitcoin than another. There's no such thing as a dirty Bitcoin simply because it comes from a drug-related crime. It doesn't mean that since a Bitcoin was used in a crime it is less of a Bitcoin already. It isn't. It could still be fully used as a Bitcoin. It could still be put into good use. After all, that's what's important with Bitcoin, that it is used in good things.

Finland has indeed done a good job. I hope the donation won't be channeled through a platform that subscribes to the idea that Bitcoins aren't equal or else it would be flagged as tainted coins and might be rejected or frozen.

The government of Finland reportedly sold 1,900 BTC worth $47 million


https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/finland-sells-1-900-btc-and-says-47m-will-be-donated-to-ukraine

So this is for a good cause after all, they wanted to help Ukraine in it's war and I think majority of us didn't support the war.

There is also a good thread by @paxmao regarding donations- Donate to Ukraine.