08-11-2025 
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A United Kingdom Police Force has received £500,000 (around $664,500) to reinvest in crime fighting, following the sale of BTC seized as the proceeds of crime.
On August 4, Lancashire Police in the North of England announced it was set to receive £500,000 to reinvest in crime fighting following a major fraud investigation.
The windfall follows an investigation launched in December 2017 into a report of money stolen from a victim. Following enquiries, it was found that the offenders had converted the money into BTC, which the Police then put a hold on with a “crypto wallet freezing order.”
Those responsible were from the Blackpool, Fleetwood, and Blackburn areas, which put the crime in Lancashire Police’s jurisdiction. According to the Force’s press release, the criminals were eventually found, “dealt with at court and sentenced.”
Once the BTC was seized, as part of the investigation, it rose in value over time. In 2017, the price of BTC fluctuated between $1000 and just over $2000. As of August 2025, BTC is sitting between $115k and $117k, a 100 times increase in value.
The victim was compensated in full, but as U.K. law does not allow victims to be overpaid, a surplus amount of one million pounds (around $1.33 million) remained—half of which was granted to Lancashire Police, who conducted the investigation.
“In a first for the force, a crypto wallet freezing order was enforced, part of new powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act, allowing the application for its forfeiture,” said Lancashire Police. “Following the application before a judge, the forfeiture was granted with the proceeds to be split between the Home Office and Lancashire Police.”
The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 was amended in 2024 with the passage of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA). The changes allowed for the freezing and seizing “cryptoassets held in a crypto wallet administered by a U.K.-connected cryptoasset service provider.”
The ECCTA meant that the stolen ‘property’ could be returned to its previous owner or even destroyed; the latter only when it is ruled that putting it back into circulation would not be “conducive to the public good.”In this respect, the ECCTA appears to take for granted that digital assets can be considered a person’s property, despite the asset class not fitting neatly into the existing categories of property under U.K. law. However, another bill is progressing through U.K. parliament that would allow digital assets to be recognized alongside the existing categories of personal property.
Where digital assets are to be returned, the ECCTA also gives the court the power to exchange the assets for cash, which was the eventual decision in the case of Lancashire Police’s BTC haul.
“At today’s value, Lancashire Police will receive half of the £1m total, so £500,000 to reinvest into fighting crime, part of the Prevention and Problem-Solving Innovation Fund,” said the Force’s press release. “The fund is specifically for the assets seized and confiscated from criminals. By taking away the financial gains of criminals and using them for positive purposes, the fund helps to disrupt the cycle of crime and prevent future offences.”
It went on to state that the fund would be prioritized for local community projects, crime prevention programs, and initiatives that aim to make “a positive difference” in dealing with crime prevention and reduction.
“This is a great result for the people of Lancashire, and hopefully the first of many future uses of this new legislation,” said Det Sgt David Wainwright, of Lancashire Police’s Economic Crime Unit. “It’s unusual for the criminal property to raise in value to more than that of the original crime, but this has allowed us to fully compensate the victim, with some spare that can be used to reduce crime, helping us to protect the people of Lancashire.”
UK digital asset seizure stockpile
Based on recent estimates, the U.K. government currently holds around $7.2 billion (£5.33 billion) in confiscated BTC due to investigations into fraud, scams, money laundering, and other illicit finance.
On July 19, local broadsheet newspaper The Telegraph reported that the U.K. Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was working with police forces to sell off a stockpile of seized digital assets worth “at least” £5 billion ($6.7 billion).
The report stated that the U.K. Home Office plans to develop an official digital asset storage system to handle sales of BTC and other digital currencies, as part of a broader effort by the U.K. government to plug a £22 billion ($29 billion) “black hole” in the country’s public finances.
Watch: Digital Asset Recovery takes token recovery seriously
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