Reference: 20260435
7 July 2026
Harry Satoshi
[FYI request #34885 email]
Dear Harry
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request, received on 9 June
2026. You requested the following:
I am writing under the Official Information Act 1982 to request information about
how the New Zealand government manages and accounts for proceeds received
from confiscated cryptocurrency assets.
…
1. Whether The Treasury receives or accounts for proceeds from the sale of
confiscated cryptocurrency assets, and if so, how those proceeds are classified
and recorded.
2. The total amount received by the Crown from confiscated cryptocurrency asset
sales, broken down by year from 2015 to present, where such records exist.
3. Whether confiscated cryptocurrency assets appear on any Crown balance
sheet or asset register, and if so, how they are valued.
4. Whether The Treasury has issued any guidance to government agencies on
the accounting treatment of seized or confiscated cryptocurrency.
5. Whether The Treasury holds any cryptocurrency assets directly, and if so, the
nature and estimated value of those holdings.
Please provide documents, records, policies or guidelines that are held and can
be released under the Act. Where information cannot be released in full, I ask
that it be released in part with reasons given for any withholding.
The Treasury does not hold any information regarding parts 2 and 3 of your request
which are being transferred to the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment
(MBIE) today; you wil receive separate correspondence notifying you of the partial
transfer of your request. However, the statutory transfer deadline has already passed
and as such we have also extended your request by 10 working days under section
15A(1)(b) of the OIA due to the consultations that were necessary for us to determine
the correct agency to partially transfer your request to.
1 The Terrace
PO Box 3724
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
tel. +64-4-472-2733
https://treasury.govt.nz
Although your request has been extended to enable the partial transfer of parts 2 and 3
to MBIE, we have made a final decision on parts 1, 4, and 5 of your request which is
detailed below.
Response to your request
A thorough search of all available sources was conducted, and no information was
found to be within the scope of your request above. Therefore, your request is refused
under section 18(e) of the OIA, as the document alleged to contain the information
requested does not exist or, despite reasonable efforts to locate it, cannot be found.
The Treasury does not directly hold cryptocurrency assets, does not receive or directly
account for proceeds from the sale of confiscated cryptocurrency assets, and has not
issued any guidance to government agencies on the accounting treatment of seized or
confiscated cryptocurrency. The Financial Statements of the Government contains
aggregated financial information and does not contain the level of disaggregation
required to identify amounts received by the Crown from confiscated cryptocurrency
assets.
Please note that this letter (with your personal details removed) and enclosed
documents may be published on the Treasury website.
This reply addresses the information you requested. Under section 28(3) of the OIA,
you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review any decisions made under this
request.
The Ombudsman may be contacted by email at:
[email address] or by
calling 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Hannah Singleton
Manager, Fiscal Reporting
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