KA-CHING

FBI Auctions $100M in Silk Road Bitcoin

Online drug retailer.

After taking down the world's largest online retailer of illegal drugs, Silk Road, last fall, the FBI will auction off the currency used to make a lot of the anonymous buys--Bitcoin. About 144,000 of Silk Road kingpin Ross Ulbricht's Bitcoins as well as 30,000 from Silk Road itself will be auctioned. As Bitcoin is currently worth around $600, that would put the value of the digital currency being sold at just over $100 million. The federal government will auction the currency off in 3,000 Bitcoin blocks and is asking for cold, hard cash. The auction will take place over two weeks, beginning June 27. “Bids will be accepted by email from registered bidders using a form available from the U.S. Marshals Web page," and those wishing to bid have to make a "refundable" deposit of $200,000.