US Government to Sell 44,000 BTC in Final Silk Road Auction
:format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/JTM7MWWX6RBPVDQFN6DF73B37A.png)
U.S Marshals (Credit: Wikipedia)
/arc-photo-coindesk/arc2-prod/public/LXF2COBSKBCNHNRE3WTK2BZ7GE.png)
The US Marshals Service (USMS) has announced it will sell 44,341 BTC (worth approximately $10.6m at press time) in an online auction due to take place on 5th November.
To be held from 12:00 UTC to 18:00 UTC, the six-hour auction, open only to pre-registered bidders, represents the final sale of bitcoins in connection with civil forfeiture actions taken against convicted Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht.
The bitcoins will be sold in 21 blocks of 2,000 bitcoins, with the remaining 2,341 BTC to be sold in a separate block. Winners, the agency said, will be notified on 6th November.
The agency continued:
The announcement comes one month after the USMS revealed to CoinDesk that it was likely to set a date for its final auction of the assets before the year's end.
In total, the USMS seized more than 144,000 BTC (then worth $122m) from Ulbricht in late 2013. The majority of the holdings – 100,000 BTC – have since been liquidated by the agency in two public auctions.
Disclosure
Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by Bullish, a cryptocurrency exchange, which in turn is owned by Block.one, a firm with interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets including bitcoin and EOS. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary, and an editorial committee, chaired by a former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, is being formed to support journalistic integrity.
Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.