US to auction bitcoin from Silk Road drug site bust
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Los Angeles (dpa) - Digital currency seized when US authorities shutdown a drug-dealing website last year will again be auctioned for real money, the US Marshals Service announced Monday.
The auction of 50,000 bitcoin from the accounts of alleged Silk Road website founder Ross Ulbricht will take place December 4.
At current rates, the sale is valued at more than 20 million dollars.
The sale announced Monday is the second of virtual assets from the Silk Road bust, following the July sale of 30,000 bitcoin worth an estimated 18 million dollars to a Silicon Valley investor, Tim Draper, for an undisclosed amount.
Authorities shut down the Silk Road website in October 2013 and arrested Ulbricht on charges he masterminded the Amazon-style sale of 1.2 billion dollars of heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and other illegal drugs.
Ulbricht has pled not guilty.
Just a month after Ulbricht's arrest, a new internet drugs portal, Silk Road 2.0, appeared online.
The FBI shut it down two weeks ago, on November 5, and arrested its alleged founder, programmer Blake Benthall.
Bitcoin is a digital currency launched in 2009 whose value is determined by market supply and demand. On Monday, a bitcoin was trading at about 400 dollars.
