Germany’s customs service is a step away from new powers to seize crypto worth more than €100,000 when its owner cannot plausibly explain where it came from, even if no criminal investigation has been opened. The Bundestag passed the bill on Thursday, Nov. 12. It still needs the Bundesrat’s consent before it can take effect as planned on Jan. 1, 2027.
What the Bundestag approved
Most of the law, formally titled the Act for More Justice by Strengthening the Customs Administration and Combating Financial Crime, restructures Germany’s customs service. The Bundestag said the CDU/CSU and SPD coalition voted for it together with the AfD, while Die Linke voted against and the Greens abstained.
What matters for crypto holders is a new administrative procedure for investigating and securing assets of doubtful origin. According to the government’s bill, the assets it covers expressly include crypto-assets as defined in the EU’s MiCA regulation, along with comparable digital representations of value or rights.
The procedure only applies to significant assets, which the bill defines as anything worth more than €100,000. For assets that must be entered in a public register, such as cars, land, ships and aircraft, the threshold is €50,000. Crypto falls under the €100,000 bar, and officers may estimate the value.
How a seizure would work
Customs could secure an asset for up to 30 days if there are factual indications that it was not acquired lawfully. A finance court can extend that once by 150 days; a single judge decides without a hearing, and the ruling cannot be appealed. For crypto, the seizure works as an attachment under Germany’s Fiscal Code, which bars the holder from selling or otherwise disposing of the assets.
The test is whether a lawful purchase looks plausible overall. Factors include whether the holder’s income and wealth match the asset’s value, whether the claimed source of funds can be traced, whether ownership is transparent, and whether the asset turned up alongside a criminal case or a breach of import, export or border rules. The Bundestag’s finance committee added one more factor on Nov. 11: false statements by the holder can count against them.
Permanent confiscation needs a finance court convinced the asset is of unlawful origin, and the committee moved that decision from a single judge to a panel. Once customs applies for confiscation, the seizure stays in place while the case runs. The committee added that it also continues if the matter becomes a criminal case.
Not a blanket power over every wallet
Weekend posts made the power sound broader and more immediate than it is. Kalshi’s news account wrote that German customs “can now seize ‘suspicious crypto’ before any criminal case is opened.” The bill is not yet in force, and it only covers assets found within the customs administration’s own area of responsibility. The government’s notes cite border checks on goods and cash, customs investigations and the unit that polices undeclared work. A hardware wallet found at a border check could qualify. Coins in self-custody at home would not, unless customs comes across them in its own work.
Once the procedure applies, though, the burden shifts in practice. The government argues nearly every law-abiding person can show where an asset worth more than €100,000 came from, while the state usually cannot prove the opposite. That puts more weight on exchange statements, bank records and transaction histories, which many holders already keep for tax purposes.
The money and the criticism
The government expects the new procedure to bring in about €308 million a year from 2028. That assumes about half of cases succeed, and the bill admits there are no statistics on assets of unlawful origin. The bill also gives the Federal Criminal Police Office about €28.4 million from 2027 to 2030, mainly for IT infrastructure and crypto analysis tools.
The Greens and Die Linke said it does too little. Green lawmaker Max Lucks said €308 million is about 0.3% of the roughly €100 billion laundered in Germany each year, according to the Bundestag’s debate summary. Isabelle Vandre of Die Linke also called the sum too small. At a Nov. 2 hearing, law professor Kilian Wegner of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg called the approach a workable compromise, while questioning why recovering criminal proceeds should be a policing task rather than one for criminal law.
What happens next
The bill is one that needs the Bundesrat’s consent, and the states’ chamber has two sessions left this year, on Nov. 20 and Dec. 18. The customs bill was not on the published Nov. 20 agenda as of Friday, though items can still be added. The finance committee’s report shows the coalition already took up the Bundesrat’s earlier requests on data sharing with the states.
The Nov. 20 agenda does include a separate law ratifying automatic exchange of crypto tax data under the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, the same regime behind the debate over South Korea’s delayed crypto tax. Together, the two laws would give German authorities a clearer view of who holds crypto and a new way to hold it, something other states have formalized with tools such as Nigeria’s national wallet for confiscated crypto.
FAQ
Is Germany’s crypto seizure law already in force?
No. The Bundestag passed it on Nov. 12, but it needs the Bundesrat’s consent. The planned start date is Jan. 1, 2027.
Can German customs take crypto permanently without a conviction?
Only through a finance court. Customs can hold assets for 30 days, or 180 with a court extension, but permanent confiscation needs a panel of judges convinced the assets are of unlawful origin.
Does the €100,000 threshold apply to all crypto holders in Germany?
No. It covers crypto worth more than €100,000 that customs finds in its own work, such as border checks or customs investigations, and only when a lawful origin does not look plausible.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
