The U.S government through its agency, the General Services Administration (GSA), known for auctioning government properties has expanded its portfolio to Bitcoin as reported by The Washington Post.
The two-day auction event of about 0.7501 bitcoins began at the start of the week and ended on Wednesday. Upon the closure of the auction event, the successful bidder won with an offer of $53,104. Still, the seller had to pay real-time has price higher than the quote meaning that the winner had to pay a premium for his purchase through the government.
READ: Morgan Stanley becomes first major U.S Bank offering clients Bitcoin
“Auctioning off this share of cryptocurrency broke new ground for our GSA Auctions platform, and we’re extremely pleased by the enthusiasm we’ve seen from our bidders,” said Acting Regional Administrator Kevin Kerns with GSA’s Southeast Sunbelt Region, in a statement to The Washington Post.
It’s important to note the U.S Federal government, currently has about is 70,124 bitcoin worth about $4 billion, as its crypto holdings are held in various departments of the United States Government primarily acquired through asset forfeitures in legal cases.
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Recall some months ago, the U.S. Justice Department released a statement, which disclosed that it seized over $1 billion worth of bitcoin associated with a shady online marketplace – Silk Road.
Thousands of BTCs worth $1 billion were seized by the United States law enforcement agencies in what the Justice Department disclosed was the largest seizure of cryptocurrency in the history of the agency.
- The U.S. enforcement agencies were able to make such a seizure through a unit within the Internal Revenue Service that specializes in tracking virtual currency transactions prevalent when using cryptos.
- The Internal Revenue Service agents were able to identify 54 new bitcoin transactions executed on the shady platform.
How did the US get the bitcoins without the keys? Thats the point of bitcoin, they cant be seized without the key!
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Yes,that’s where there is a govt.It did go banning crypto outright because of perceived infractions.
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Really helpful article is this something that occurs often these auctions and are they open to public ?