Final Silk Road auction to be held next month

The US Marshals Service (USMS) has announced it will auction the last remaining bitcoins in connection with the criminal conviction and civil forfeiture against Ross Ulbricht, the creator of darkweb martketplace Silk Road, on November 5.

The USMS will sell approximately 44,341 bitcoins, which are being offered in 22 blocks: 21 blocks of 2,000 bitcoins and 1 block of just over 2,341 bitcoins. The winners will be announced on Nov. 6.

Over 144,000 BTC (worth $122m at the time) in total was seized by the USMS from Ulbricht in late 2013 along with 29,655 BTC held in wallets on the online illicit marketplace at the time of its closure.

So far, three auctions have been held to auction off the bitcoins. The last one was held in March, which saw 14 bidders competing to purchase 50,000 BTC (then worth $13.4m); with a mysterious bitcoin firm Cumberland Mining winning the majority of 27,000 bitcoins. Venture capitalist Tim Draper was the first auction winner and Bitcoin Investment Trust claimed the second auction with Draper again winning a few coins.

Bids for the upcoming auction will be accepted by email from pre-registered bidders only. The registration period will run from Oct. 19 and until noon Nov. 2, the USMS said.