The US Marshals Service (USMS) announced that four winners split the final 44,341 bitcoins in the auction held just over one week ago.
The auction was the last of several held over the past 17 months by the federal agency for the bitcoins seized from online drug bazaar Silk Road and its convicted operator, Ross Ulbricht. A total of 144,341 bitcoins were seized from Ulbricht’s wallet in 2013, and 29,656 from Silk Road’s servers.
The first 100,000 of Ulbricht's coins were liquidated in the two previous auctions, and the final 44,341, last week.
USMS said that the four winners respectively took home an aggregate of 4,000, 6,000, 10,000 and 24,341 BTC. The identities of the winners were not disclosed, although Bitcoin Exchange itBit did reveal last week that it won the 10,000 BTC.
The first auction, held last year for the 29,656 coins found on Silk Road, was a highly anticipated event. Though auction participants likely have little or nothing to gain- they can simply buy the bitcoins on the open market- such events may be beneficial for their brand. Venture capitalist Tim Draper won all the coins from the first auction.
The auctions held since then have come with decreasing fanfare, and the latest had the lowest turnout. The auction closes another yet another chapter in the story of Silk Road, fallout from which still continues. The sentencing for one of the federal agents accused of stealing bitcoins during the investigation is scheduled for next month.
