Governments might look askance at bitcoin, but it does not mean they do not want to cash in on its soaring value and France is set to pocket nearly $30 million from its first action of the cryptocurrency, a minister said on Wednesday.
The sale was of 600-plus coins seized as part of an investigation and were valued at more than $30 million based on current market prices.
Held online by the Kapandji Morhange auction house, the sale attracted nearly 1,600 bidders.
"It's a sale that will raise 24 million euros ($29 million) in proceeds for the government", the minister of public finances, Olivier Dussopt, told the television channel, BFM Business, at the end of the auction.
When preparations got under way in September, bitcoin was trading around $10,000, far from the $60,000 it struck over the weekend, putting the sale of 611 coins in an altogether different league.
When bidding began at 9am (8am GMT), the starting price stood at 23,250 euros per coin, but most of the coins sold for around 40,000 euros apiece, more or less in line with the current market price, minus exchange rates and commission.
Although bitcoin has often been accused of being a speculative asset and a means for criminals to move and launder money, the cryptocurrency has seen its value soar in recent months as more mainstream companies, such as Tesla and hedge fund BlackRock, get behind it.
No information has been disclosed about the provenance of the bitcoins as the legal process is under way.
If the defendant wins, they'll receive the funds from the auction minus commissions paid to the auction house.
Otherwise, the French state will pocket any money not awarded by the court to victims or charity.
France is far from the first to auction cryptocurrencies, with the US doing so in 2014, followed by Canada, Australia, Belgium and Britain, according to the auction house.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
PAKISTAN v SRI LANKA
Twenty20 International series
Thu Oct 26, 1st T20I, Abu Dhabi
Fri Oct 27, 2nd T20I, Abu Dhabi
Sun Oct 29, 3rd T20I, Lahore
Tickets are available at www.q-tickets.com
The%20specs
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The biog
Favourite hobby: I love to sing but I don’t get to sing as much nowadays sadly.
Favourite book: Anything by Sidney Sheldon.
Favourite movie: The Exorcist 2. It is a big thing in our family to sit around together and watch horror movies, I love watching them.
Favourite holiday destination: The favourite place I have been to is Florence, it is a beautiful city. My dream though has always been to visit Cyprus, I really want to go there.
Hotel Data Cloud profile
Date started: June 2016
Founders: Gregor Amon and Kevin Czok
Based: Dubai
Sector: Travel Tech
Size: 10 employees
Funding: $350,000 (Dh1.3 million)
Investors: five angel investors (undisclosed except for Amar Shubar)
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
