Content adapted from this Zerohedge.com article : source
Governments might be torn about cryptocurrency and what to do with it.
That is until they have it in their hands.
The U.S. Marshal Services is about to hold their third auction of seized bitcoin. The first two auctions netted $1.6 millin and over $40 million.
Based upon today's price, this auction will be around $23 million.
Authored by Aaron Wood via CoinTelegraph.com,
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.
_image courtesy of CoinTelegraph_
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.
As we noted earlier, there has been some chatter that this auction's supply is responsible for some of the weakness in crypto today.
It will be interesting to see what other coins are involved in seizures in the future. With cryptocurrencies becoming more common, authorities know a certain percentage will be used in illegal affairs. At what point does the government begin to hold onto the tokens as money instead of auctioning it off?
Non-adapted content found at zerohedge.com: Source