More than a decade after purchasing 97 bitcoins for 10,000 euros (about $11,500) as part of a research project, the Tenerife city council is preparing to sell the cryptocurrency for almost 10 million euros.
BTC was purchased in 2012 by the island’s Institute of Technology and Renewable Energy (ITER), a public technology center focused on research in renewable energy and emerging technologies, local media outlet. The Day reports.
The goal, officials say, was not to make money but to study the inner workings of blockchain technology, the decentralized accounting 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 reject them.
Instead, ITER is negotiating with an anonymous Spanish financial entity regulated by the Bank of Spain and the CNMV, the country’s securities watchdog, to carry out the transaction.
Juan José Martínez, Councilor for Innovation of Tenerife, says that the income would finance new research projects at the ITER facilities in Granadilla de Abona. The institute is currently exploring fields such as quantum technology.
