Bit2Me Builds a Crypto-Seizure Unit for Police and Courts

Key Takeaways

Bit2Shield connects police operations to asset recovery

Bit2Shield is the trading name of CryptoShield S.L., a separate company within Bit2Me Group. Spain’s official commercial register shows that it began operating on July 23, 2026. Its registered activities include technological investigations, forensic analysis, expert reports, operational support and blockchain intelligence.

CryptoShield’s sole shareholder and administrator is Devteam S.L., which Bit2Me identifies among the companies in its corporate group. Bitcoinforme S.L., a separate entity in the same group, operates Bit2Me’s regulated exchange services.

Bit2Me says Bit2Shield will serve police, courts, public bodies and financial institutions. Its work will extend from the initial investigation to the eventual transfer of sale proceeds.

Bit2Shield is a private service provider, not an enforcement authority. It can assist with a seizure or liquidation only under instructions from the police, a court or another competent body.

Its investigations division will be led by Adrián Maroño, a former member of the Spanish Civil Guard’s Central Operational Unit, according to a statement Bit2Me shared with CoinDesk.

The €1.5 million figure needs context

Bit2Me says it processed approximately €1.5 million in seized cryptocurrency during 2025 while working on matters involving Europol, Interpol and Spanish police. According to the company, Chainalysis was used to trace the assets before their conversion into euros for the state.

The figure shows that the group performed seizure-related work before CryptoShield was formally established. It does not reveal the number of cases, the assets involved or whether €1.5 million represents their value when seized, transferred into custody or sold.

Bit2Me describes work on matters involving Europol and Interpol, but it has not published an agency statement or agreement establishing a formal partnership with Bit2Shield.

What seizing cryptocurrency actually involves

The first difficult step in the workflow is obtaining effective control of the cryptocurrency. The assets cannot be physically removed from a blockchain; authorities must instead prevent the previous controller from moving them.

With a self-custodied wallet, investigators may need to secure a hardware wallet, private key, recovery phrase, passphrase or another signing device. Finding one item does not guarantee access. A wallet may require an additional passphrase or several signatures, while a recovered phrase may control addresses that have not yet been identified.

This distinction has become more important as criminal groups reportedly use private vaults to store crypto credentials. The coins remain recorded onchain; the physical item provides a way to authorize transactions. Investigators must still determine which addresses the recovered credentials control and whether another password, device or signature is required.

If the cryptocurrency is held by an exchange or another custodian, authorities may instead serve a lawful freezing or transfer order on that provider. United Nations guidance notes that seized virtual assets may be transferred to a secure wallet controlled by a court, law-enforcement body, asset-management office or appointed private company.

Bit2Shield may participate at several stages, but each has a different legal purpose. Tracing identifies the assets, freezing or seizure prevents them from being moved, confiscation permanently removes them through a legal decision, and disposal determines whether they are sold, retained or returned to victims.

Blockchain records are only part of the evidence

A blockchain can show that a transaction occurred, but an address does not contain the legal name of its controller. A court-ready case therefore needs evidence connecting the onchain activity to a person, account, device or organization.

Exact requirements differ by jurisdiction, but a defensible chain-of-custody record should identify where the credentials were found, who handled them, which addresses they controlled and how the assets were transferred. Transaction hashes, timestamps and access records can preserve an audit trail after the initial seizure.

Bit2Shield says it will prepare digitally signed reports and can present its findings in court. A digital signature can establish that a report has not been altered since it was signed, but it does not prove that the underlying evidence was collected correctly. The company has not publicly detailed its evidence-retention policy, forensic standards or internal access logs.

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Multisignature storage reduces one-key risk

Bit2Shield plans to hold seized assets in multisignature cold storage. A multisignature wallet requires a specified number of keys to approve a transaction. In a two-of-three arrangement, for example, three keys exist but any two are needed to move the assets.

This can prevent one lost or compromised key from exposing the entire wallet. It can also divide approval between the service provider and the authority that ordered the seizure. If one organization controls enough keys to meet the threshold, however, it can still move the assets without an outside signer.

Bit2Me has not disclosed how many key shares Bit2Shield will create, who will hold them or whether a court or public authority will control at least one required signature. It has also not specified its recovery procedure, insurance coverage or liability if credentials are lost or misused.

Allegations involving the theft of $46 million from U.S. federal seizure wallets illustrate the risk created when contractors or employees receive excessive access to government-controlled assets. Moving keys offline reduces exposure to remote attacks, but it does not remove insider-access risk.

Authorities decide when seized crypto is sold

The competent authority, not Bit2Shield, will decide whether and when seized assets are sold.

That decision can materially affect the recovered amount because cryptocurrency prices may change between the initial seizure and the conclusion of a case. An early sale removes further price exposure but fixes the asset’s value at that point. Holding it preserves the possibility of appreciation while leaving the state or potential recipients exposed to losses.

Governments do not always follow the same approach. A proposed Arizona reserve funded with seized criminal assets, for example, would allow certain cryptocurrency to be retained rather than automatically converted into cash. The proposal shows that retention and liquidation are separate policy choices. Under Bit2Shield’s model, its role in a sale begins only after the competent authority orders one.

Bit2Me has has not identified the trading venues, pricing benchmark, fees or slippage controls that would apply to a court-ordered sale. It has also not explained how Bit2Shield would handle a seized token without a liquid euro market.

Why the regulatory split matters

Bit2Shield says its investigative, forensic,, expert-report and training activities fall outside the scope of MiCA because CryptoShield S.L. is not operating as a crypto-asset service provider. When a case requires cryptocurrency cryptocurrency to be exchanged for euros, Bitcoinforme S.L. will conduct the conversion.

Bitcoinforme appears in the CNMV register of authorized crypto-asset service providers. That identifies the legal entity expected to perform the regulated exchange service rather than extending the same status automatically to CryptoShield.

The announcement does not identify which legal entity will act as custodian while assets remain in multisignature storage. Contracts with public authorities will need to define who controls the wallets, which which company bears responsibility for the assets and what protections apply before liquidation.

What authorities should establish before using Bit2Shield

Before appointing Bit2Shield, a public institution would need clear answers to five operational operational questions:

UntilUntil those controls are publicly disclosed, outside observers cannot fully assess the custody and execution safeguards behind behind Bit2Shield’s services.

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