More than a decade after buying 97 bitcoins for €10,000 (about $11,500) as part of a research project, Tenerife’s local council is preparing to sell the cryptocurrency for nearly €10 million.
The BTC was purchased in 2012 by the island’s Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables (ITER), a public technology center focused on renewable energy research and new technologies, reports local news outlet El Dia.
The goal, officials say, was not to make money but to study the inner workings of blockchain technology, the decentralized ledger system that underpins the cryptocurrency.
Today, the value of the investment has increased by almost 10,000%. But unloading the coins is not straightforward, and in previous attempts ITER saw Spanish banks reject them.
Instead, ITER is negotiating with an unnamed Spanish financial entity regulated by the Bank of Spain and CNMV, the country’s securities watchdog, to complete the transaction.
Juan José Martínez, Tenerife’s innovation councillor, says the profits will fund new research projects at ITER’s facility in Granadilla de Abona. The institute is currently exploring fields such as quantum technology.
