PANews reported on January 1st that European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde announced Bulgaria's formal accession to the Eurozone, making it the 21st member state. This also means the ECB Governing Council now has 27 members. Bulgarian Central Bank Governor Radev stated that joining the Eurozone was not merely an economic decision, nor simply a currency choice. In 2018, Bulgaria disposed of approximately 213,500 seized Bitcoins for a mere $3.5 billion at the time; now, the market value of those Bitcoins exceeds the country's total public debt.