Irish Authorities Unlock and Seize a 500-BTC Criminal Wallet
Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau, with Europol support, gained access to and seized a wallet containing 500 BTC that had remained inaccessible after an earlier criminal-asset case. The wallet was the first of a larger set of previously locked wallets holding thousands of bitcoin.
On March 24, 2026, Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau announced that, with technical support from Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, it had gained access to and seized a cryptocurrency wallet containing 500 bitcoin, valued at roughly €30 million at the time.
The wallet was connected to assets seized years earlier but had remained inaccessible because the credentials needed to reach the bitcoin were unavailable. Contemporary Irish reporting identified it as the first of 12 wallets holding about 6,000 BTC that authorities had been unable to access. Europol supplied technical expertise and decryption resources used in the operation.
The event illustrates a distinctive problem in Bitcoin-related asset forfeiture: legal seizure and practical control are not always the same thing. Authorities can obtain rights over a wallet or its proceeds while still being unable to move the bitcoin without the necessary keys or recovery information. Successfully accessing the 500-BTC wallet therefore represented a concrete change in control, not merely another forfeiture order.