The suspect told police he needed money after suffering heavy losses due to the crash that occurred in the market. He snatched several gold necklaces from the jeweler with a total value of $50,000.
Law enforcement agencies in Bangkok in Thailand captured a 34-year-old man named Montry, who revealed he robbed a jewelry store under severe stress due to the recent market Crashdown. He said that he committed the crime due to the losses suffered due to the fall in the price of bitcoin, which registered a 67% decline last week from its all-time high in November 2021.
With the idea of compensating for the losses caused by the crash in the bitcoin market, Montry stole gold necklaces that weighed at least 31 ounces and were worth almost 2 million baht, the monetary unit of Thailand.
The suspect got caught 11 hours after extracting the gold and got interrogated by authorities. He explained how he parked his motorcycle in front of the jewelry store, entered with a gun, and ran away with the stolen gold, later hiding in the vehicle before returning to his house.
Montry also told police that he was under extreme stress and in dire need of money after recently suffering vast losses on his bitcoin holdings. He has been accused of armed robbery, as highlighted by Thai media outlets.
The note does not show how many BTC the suspect had under his control, nor if he had sold his bitcoin holdings, thus losing any possibility of recovering from losses in case the digital assets begin to reach high levels.
Although Monthly’s case seems one of a kind, crimes linked to bitcoin and other crypto-assets are experiencing a considerable decline, at least that’s what a report led by CipherTrace highlights.
In its report, the entity expressed that illegal activities have decreased and are a tiny fraction of the digital asset environment. The firm explained that illicit activity, which made up 0.62% to 0.65% of total activities linked to crypto in 2020, has fallen to between 0.10 in 2021.
In any case, the bitcoin community usually focuses on not losing until they get rid of their holdings. This action happens because holding BTC for a long time generally results in profits, replacing abrupt losses that may take effect due to a fluctuation in the market.
A bitcoin enthusiast recommended the community not to do something stupid from which there is no turning back because they can always rebuild what they lose. He said the Bitcoin community would recover, and the drops in BTC prices are just buying opportunities to continue accumulating.
By: Jenson Nuñez
