More than a decade after purchasing 97 bitcoins for €10,000 (around $11,500) as part of a research project, Tenerife City Hall is preparing to sell the cryptocurrency for nearly €10 million.
BTC was purchased in 2012 by the Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables (ITER), a public technology center focused on research into renewable energy and emerging technologies, reports local newspaper El Dia.
The goal, officials said, was not to make money but to study the inner workings of blockchain technology, the decentralized ledger system that underpins cryptocurrency.
Today, the value of the investment has increased by almost 10,000%. But getting rid of the coins is not easy, and in previous attempts ITER has seen Spanish banks refuse them.
Instead, ITER is negotiating with an unnamed Spanish financial entity regulated by the Bank of Spain and the CNMV, the country’s securities watchdog, to complete the transaction.
Juan José Martínez, Tenerife’s innovation advisor, said the profits would be used to fund new research projects at the ITER facility in Granadilla de Abona. The institute is currently exploring areas such as quantum technology.
