Tenerife Council to Sell Bitcoin Bought in 2012 After Near 10,000% Price Rise

More than a decade after buying 97 bitcoin for €10,000 (around $11,500) as part of a research project, the local council of Tenerife 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 tech center focused on research in renewable energy and emerging technologies, local news outlet El Dia reports.

The aim, officials say, was not to make money but to study the inner workings of blockchain technology, the decentralized ledger system underpinning the cryptocurrency.

Today, the investment’s value has increased nearly 10,000%. But offloading the coins isn’t straightforward and, in previous attempts, ITER saw Spanish banks turn them away.

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 carry out the transaction.

Juan José Martínez, Tenerife’s innovation councillor, says the proceeds would fund new research projects at ITER’s facility in Granadilla de Abona. The institute is currently exploring fields like quantum technology.