Feds To Auction Off Silk Road Bitcoins Starting Next Month

Remember the trove of Bitcoins the federal government seized as part of its raid on the online black market Silk Road? Those precious bits of cryptocurrency will be auctioned off in batches of 3,000 starting next month.

The announcement was made today, with the auction being held by the U.S. Marshals Service next month. Unfortunately, the auction will only be open to those serious about investing in the (somewhat tumultuous) digital currency.

In order to participate in the auction, you'll need to register by the 23rd of this month, and part of that registration involves shelling out a wire transfer for $200,000 from a bank within the US. You'll have to provide the receipt of this transfer as part of the registration — it is completely refundable.

A total of nine blocks of 3,000 bitcoins will be auctioned off, followed by one slightly smaller batch of 2,657 bitcoins. The value of bitcoin at the time of the auction will determine how much this nets the government, but at the current rate it will be in the millions.

SOURCE: GigaOm