Share this article
Tenerife Council to Sell Bitcoin Bought in 2012 After Near 10,000% Price Rise
The proceeds from the sale will fund new research projects at ITER, including exploring fields like quantum technology.
Updated Nov 6, 2025, 1:31 p.m. Published Nov 6, 2025, 1:31 p.m.
What to know:
- The council of Tenerife bought 97 bitcoin in 2012 for €10,000 as part of a research project, and is now selling them for nearly €10 million, a massive increase in value.
- The cryptocurrency was purchased by ITER to study blockchain technology, not to make a profit, and selling the coins requires working with a regulated Spanish financial entity.
- The proceeds from the sale will fund new research projects at ITER, including exploring fields like quantum technology.
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.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
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.
AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Coinbase Sees Crypto Recovery Ahead as Liquidity Improves and Fed Rate Cut Odds Climb
The crypto exchange also took note of a so-called AI bubble that continues to go strong and a weaker U.S. dollar.
What to know:
- Coinbase Institutional is seeing a potential December recovery in crypto, citing improving liquidity and a shift in macroeconomic conditions that could favor risk assets like bitcoin.
- The firm's optimism is driven by rising odds of Federal Reserve rate cuts, with markets pricing in a 93% chance easing next week, and improving liquidity conditions.
- Several recent institutional developments, including Vanguard's crypto ETF policy reversal and Bank of America's greenlighting of crypto allocations, have contributed to bitcoin's rebound from recent lows.
Top Stories
