The house is then auctioned off. It's not valued at the time of arrest and any additional value returned to the person arrested.
I don't understand why it could, or should, be any different for electronic stores of value (stock, options, crypto).
As I understand this article, the same would have happened if the legal paperwork listed the value of the house in crowns, and then the housing market rose and the house tripled in value.
The only unusual thing with Bitcoins, is that the value thereof has risen to quite extreme proportions.
> what proceeds should be stripped if you get cash in exchange for drugs and use that cash to buy GME calls which skyrocket?
> but the actual proceeds at the time of the crime have a specific value
The specific value at the time is, in nearly every other situation, irrelevant. The mistake was putting a claim to a monetary value of *asset* rather than the *asset* itself.