US Marshals Service To Sell Nearly $25 Mln Worth Of Seized Bitcoin At Auction

The US Marshals Service has announced that it will be auctioning off approximately 2,170 Bitcoins seized in the course of various federal criminal, civil, and administrative cases, a press release stated March 5.

The auction will take place on March 19, 2018 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. EDT. Bidders who wish to participate must fulfill the registration requirements by noon EDT March 14, complete with a $200,000 deposit.

The bitcoins will be offered in 14 different blocks: two blocks of 500 BTC, 11 blocks of 100 BTC, and one block of approximately 70 BTC. Winning bidders will be notified privately the same day as the auction.

The range of cases from which the bitcoins were seized is listed in an official notice posted on the US Marshals Service website. Among the cases listed is that of Shaun Bridges, the Secret Service agent who was convicted of stealing $800,000 in bitcoins in 2015.

The US Marshals Service has previously auctioned sums of Bitcoin seized in the course of civil and criminal proceedings. On Jan. 22, 2018, the agency sold 3,813 BTC, a sum that was worth over $40 mln by that day’s exchange prices.

Previous to this year, the last US Marshals auction of seized Bitcoin was in August, 2016 where 2,700 BTC were sold off. Estimated market value at the time was nearly $1.6 mln.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, government auctions of seized crypto assets have been held worldwide; in Ukraine, South Korea, as well as Australia.