US Marshals Service: The last 40,000 Silk Road Bitcoins may be auctioned this year

On September 5, the United States Marshals Service (USMS) revealed that it would auction off the remaining bitcoins confiscated from Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht sometime in 2015.

In 2013, the online black market Silk Road was shut down by the US government. The FBI seized 29,655 BTC (bitcoin units) from the wallet of the Silk Road server, and later confiscated more than 144,000 BTC from Ulbricht.

A spokesperson for the Marshals Service told CoinDesk:

"We haven't announced any dates for the auctions, but it should be before the end of the year."

To date, the Marshals Service has successfully held three public Bitcoin auctions, the most recent of which took place in March of this year, with 12 bidders winning a total of 50,000 BTC. Among them, the mysterious Bitcoin company Cumberland Mining won 47,000 BTC, becoming the biggest winner of the third auction.

In the first and second auctions, Tim Draper, general manager of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, won a total of 31,656 BTC, while the bidding group consisting of the Bitcoin Investment Trust and the SecondMarket trading department won the second auction and won 48,000 BTC.

It is reported that this event will be the last Bitcoin auction involving Silk Road, with a total of 44,336 BTC being offered to potential investors. (As of press time, these Bitcoins are worth $10 million)

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