The UK’s Chancellor Rachel Reeves could use £5.2b of seized Bitcoin to help address the ‘black hole’ in the public finances.
The Bitcoin was seized from organised criminals in one of the world’s largest-ever busts, following a major money-laundering investigation into Chinese fraud.
However, with the outstanding returns of Bitcoin in recent years, how much could the UK’s crypto haul be worth if the Chancellor doesn’t spend it?
New analysis from Techopedia shows that the UK’s Bitcoin could be worth £62.2 billion in 5 years if it returns the 1,196.6% the cryptocurrency has returned in the last 5 years
At around £80,000 per Bitcoin, the UK has about 65,000 BTC at its disposal. Some of the industry’s biggest bulls believe the UK could be sat on even more in the future.
Jurrien Timmer, Director of Global Macro at Fidelity Investments, has previously said he thinks the value of a single Bitcoin could reach $1 billion by the year 2040. This would make the UK’s seized BTC worth £65 trillion by 2040, over 5 times the value of the whole UK economy, with the economy valued at about £12.2 trillion in 2023.
Others, such as Chamath Palihapitiya, a prominent venture capitalist and early Bitcoin investor, believed the value of a single Bitcoin could be worth £400,000 ($500k) by October, making the UK’s BTC worth £26bn. Trader and Market Wizard Series author Peter Brandt thinks it’ll be worth around £160k ($200k) by September, doubling the £5.2bn the UK has in less than 12 months.
Leave a Comment