Seizure lifted on Bitcoin-24's German accounts

Lawyers for Bitcoin-24 say the seizure of the European exchange's German accounts has been lifted by the public prosecutor's office in Berlin.

"This means that the suspicions concerning our client in relation to the alleged fraud and money laundering could not be substantiated," states a press release from the firm of Röhl-Dehm & Partner. "Our client is now in the process of preparing to make

the first payments from the German account."

The release adds, "For the time being these payments may only be made to those customers who have made payments into the account at Commerzbank and have not conducted any business with Bitcoins. In the course of the coming weeks we shall send messages to these customers and ask them to provide the information requested in these messages to enable the payments to be made."

Bitcoin-24 went offline in April after authorities closed its German and Polish bank accounts.

As of today, the Polish account remains closed.

"We must ask customers with credit balances in the Polish account for a little more patience," notes the statement from Röhl-Dehm & Partner, adding that the firm expects a response from Polish authorities on Monday.

With the latest developments, there are some signs the exchange could be planning to relaunch. On Wednesday, Bitcoin-24 tweeted a website screenshot of what it says will be "BTC24 2.0". A May 15 tweet also indicated the company was looking to hire a new PHP/Javascript programmer.