Bulgaria’s $25 Billion Bitcoin Blunder: How Selling in 2018 Became a Costly Mistake

Governments and crypto don’t always mix—just ask Bulgaria.

Back in 2018, officials offloaded a stash of seized Bitcoin. Fast forward to today, and that move looks like a financial faceplant.

The missed jackpot

Those coins—dumped for pennies compared to today’s prices—would now be worth a staggering $25 billion. That’s enough to make even Wall Street bankers wince (between martini sips, of course).

Hindsight’s 20/20

While regulators were busy ‘securing the bag’ back then, hodlers were quietly stacking generational wealth. Another case of bureaucrats treating crypto like a hot potato instead of digital gold.

Lesson learned? Maybe not. Governments still can’t decide if they want to ban Bitcoin or tax it—typical hedge behavior from suits who miss every boat.

A $3 billion decision with $25 billion consequences

The 213,500 BTC were reportedly originally seized in 2017 as part of Operation SELC, a coordinated crackdown on a customs fraud ring. At the time, the Bulgarian authorities did not disclose the fate of the coins in detail. However, by 2018, several local reports suggested the holdings had been sold off in tranches, likely netting the government around $3.5 billion, based on Bitcoin’s price hovering between $10,000 and $17,000 at the time.

Fast-forward to mid-2025, and Bitcoin’s meteoric rise has rewritten the economic implications of that decision. With the coins now worth over $117,000 each, the trove WOULD be valued at over $25 billion. That’s more than Bulgaria’s estimated $24 billion debt as of the end of 2024, per data from World Economics.

Germany also missed its Bitcoin payday

Unlike Germany, which recently made headlines for offloading part of its Bitcoin reserves through the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), prompting price volatility, Bulgaria’s earlier sell-off appears less tactical and more conservative. At the time, the logic was rooted in caution: avoid volatility, monetize seized assets swiftly, and strengthen short-term cash positions.

However, critics argue that the MOVE reflected a lack of foresight in managing unconventional reserves. 

Had Bulgaria adopted a more balanced strategy, retaining, for example, 10% to 20% of its Bitcoin while offloading the rest, it would today sit on a strategic reserve valued between $2.5 and $5 billion. That cushion could have enabled debt restructuring, currency stabilization, or long-term infrastructure investment, analysts suggest.

CZ’s Bitcoin-as-debt-hedge thesis

CZ’s comment “Bitcoin could solve most public debt” taps into a growing school of thought that Bitcoin could serve as a hedge against sovereign debt risk, particularly in a climate of rising inflation and global fiscal imbalances.

VanEck, the asset manager, recently modeled a scenario in which the U.S. Treasury held Bitcoin reserves as a complement to gold, projecting that a modest allocation could offset future liabilities if adopted early.

In Latin America, countries like El Salvador have taken a much more assertive stance, incorporating digital Gold into national reserves and launching Bitcoin-backed bond instruments. While critics call such policies reckless, advocates argue that they position countries to benefit disproportionately in the next crypto cycle.

Whether true or not, as long as the urban myth continues to make the rounds, Bulgaria’s Bitcoin liquidation could go down as one of the most significant missed fiscal opportunities of the last decade.

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