This month the United States Marshals Service (USMS) will be auctioning over 4,000 confiscated Bitcoins (BTC).

The USMS is a federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Justice, and the Bitcoin was confiscated during the course of various federal criminal, civil and administrative proceedings.

According to its official website, the agency will attempt to sell approximately 4,040 BTC (worth around $37.4m at current market prices) at auction this month. Bidder registration is open from the 3^rd to the 12^th February, with the auction set for the 18^th.

The Bitcoin will be divided into four lots, consisting of 2,500, 1,000, 500, and 40.54069829 BTC each.

However, before you get too excited, be aware the feds want a $200K deposit to take part in the auction! Of course, they promise they will return it to non-winning bidders within five business days of sending the BTC to the winning bidders.

Its not the first time the USMS has auctioned off Bitcoin. In January 2018 it sold more than 3,800 BTC and a further 600 BTC the following October. Other countries, including the UK and South Korea have also auctioned off confiscated Bitcoin.

AYO.NEWS says:

It makes you wonder if it wouldn’t be a better idea, in terms of public interest, for governments to tuck away any confiscated Bitcoin as a long-term investment. Still, with a $200K deposit, there’ll probably be a limited number of bidders, and institutional investor will get a steal.

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

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