The much awaited auction of bitcoins confiscated during the Silk Road investigation is long over. Auctioned by the United States Marshals Service, over 44000 bitcoins were up for bidding by auction participants earlier this month. Details of bidders have now started to emerge and the first name to go public is itBit, a New York based bitcoin exchange.
The bitcoin auction was held on November 5, for over a span of 6 hours. The auction saw 11 participants, bidding 30 times. The US Marshals Service has still not released the names of successful bidders in the auction. In order to participate in the online auction of bitcoins, the participants had to be Americans and should have registered themselves with the US Marshals Service to take part in the auction.
Coindesk, a cryptocurrency news site has reported that it spoke to itBit’s Director of Trading – Bobby Cho who confirmed that the company took part in the auction and bought 10000 bitcoins worth close to $3.2 million in today’s price. Bobby was quoted saying –
“We confirm that itBit’s auction bid, organized on behalf of a syndicate of our exchange and OTC trading clients, won five blocks in the final USMS auction.”
Last week’s auction saw last of the bitcoins from Silk Road investigation being liquidated. Other participants at the auction included Genesis Trading Company, a subsidiary of Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group and Binary Financial. The publication has reported that the Digital Currency Group failed to win the bid.
Silk Road was a deep web marketplace known for the availability of drugs, contraband and other illegal stuff which could be bought with bitcoin. Ross Ulbricht, the creator of Silk Road was arrested in 2013 by Baltimore Task Force comprising of US FBI and Secret Service agents. Ross is now serving a life sentence for his involvement in Silk Road.