Last year a drug dealer was arrested for illegal drug trade. He had been selling drugs for bitcoin, therefore the Finnish authorities confiscated 1666 bitcoin and put them in storage. Similar smaller occasions took place, which earlier and after this, but the 1666 bitcoin remains the largest junk confiscated and to my understanding the other amounts don't sum up to anything meaningful. After the price rose this year, they came to realization that they now have millions of euros worth of bitcoin stored and started to think of a way to get rid of them.
Sweden already did it!
They realized that Sweden had already done an auction in a similar situation with success and seemingly it sounded like a good idea to the Finnish authorities as well. The current recommendation from the state treasury is that the bitcoin should be auctioned. The nature of auctions, according to the treasury, is good when considering how bitcoin is viewed, not as a currency, but a form of assets. Therefore, auctions give a fair way to value the coin, not by the value at, which currencies are valued, but by the value that whomever participating in the auction might be willing to pay for them.
Well an auction won't amount to as much as could be gotten
You might argue that the government won't get as much money as they would if they sold it on the market, but then again, would you like it if someone sold millions worth of Bitcoin on the market, just to get rid of them? I certainly wouldn't. Millions dumped on the market at once wouldn't be nice. Nor, dumped at an extended period either. The only objective would be to get rid of the bitcoin. Therefore, I think it is wise for the government to auction the bitcoin.
The auction should be taking place in...
So when will the auction take place? As far as I know, so far nothing has been decided. However, the customs representative who gave a comment to a Finnish news paper, said that he believes there will be an online auction happening this spring. Well, cheap bitcoin up for grabs, just be a Finn with your 18 million and you're sure to get the bitcoin at this price.