The legal hinge is whether expired copyright counts still leave room for asset confiscation through the remaining charges and related forfeiture mechanisms. In remarks carried by MDR, court spokesperson Katrin Seidel framed it this way: “It is, in essence, about a large number of copyright violations. But those are time-barred. That means criminal law can no longer reach them.” She added that the money generated from those acts can still potentially be stripped away as criminal proceeds, which is one of the central issues in the case.
The 57,000 BTC figure is not coming out of thin air. Prosecutors have argued that the main defendant originally acquired 136,000 BTC with proceeds from advertising and subscription traps linked to the site. After subtracting the nearly 50,000 BTC already transferred to authorities, additional amounts allegedly sold off, and 22,000 BTC and 5,000 BTC said to have been paid to associates, the state’s working assumption is that around 57,000 BTC remain. That estimate has been part of the prosecution narrative since the opening phase of the trial.
The defense has pushed back hard. In dpa-covered proceedings, lawyers described the indictment as “economically driven,” arguing that the case appears aimed above all at dividing up the defendants’ Bitcoin wealth and constructing a basis for state seizure. That tension matters because the proposal is not final, the defense has criticized its premise, and it remains unclear whether the main defendant would accept any deal that includes surrendering access to additional coins.
For Bitcoin traders, the story is less about an immediate transfer than about the reappearance of a familiar risk: state-controlled supply that could eventually be sold into the market. Saxony’s last liquidation became a widely watched price event. If this deal advances and the 57,000 BTC are actually reachable, that overhang comes back into view.
At press time, Bitcoin traded at $74,320.
