The governments of France and the United States have achieved record sales with recent auctions of bitcoins made with coins confiscated during judicial operations years ago.
France has made a record sale of $34 million worth of confiscated bitcoins, which were worth about $9,5 million at the time of their seizure. According to reported a local media outlet in the country, the French government seized nearly 25 million XRP, the token launched by Ripple Labs, during a procedure in 2019, which was then exchanged for the bitcoins that were recently auctioned.
In total, the 25 million XRP are they exchanged for 611 units of Bitcoin (BTC), which the government managed to auction off for $34 million. Although France did not discuss the origin of these cryptocurrencies, the outlet noted that the funds were linked to the seizure made from Gatehub in 2019.
On the other hand, the United States government also performed The auction of a few fractions of Bitcoin, about 0,75 BTC, sold for more than $53.000 on Wednesday. The BTC auctioned by the United States were seized in 2014, during the FBI's investigations into the dark web marketplace Silk Road. During this judicial procedure, about 170.000 BTC were seized, which the US authorities have been selling in different batches.
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1.500 interested in bitcoins in France
The Bitcoin auction held in France is the first to be held in the country, and attracted more than 1.500 interested parties who pre-registered to participate in the auction. Among those registered were individuals, businesses and companies, who bid to win the bitcoin units up for auction.
The French government sold the bitcoins in 437 cryptocurrency batches, where the initial bidding price ranged between 50-60% of the actual market priceThe price, of course, could vary according to the interest of the participants, which was what gave rise to some very unusual situations during the sale. In fact, one of the lots for sale was a 0,11 BTC lot valued at 5.100 euros, and yet the buyer paid a total of 26.800 euros for it.
This is a clear example of how the value of currencies like Bitcoin can rise, especially if these currencies are related to historical or curious events within the crypto world.
Interest in Silk Road bitcoins
Since the U.S. Marshals Department seized bitcoins from the Silk Road dark market for narcotics and all manner of illegal goods in 2014, it has been receiving numerous offers from potential buyers who want to buy cryptocurrency from law enforcement rather than directly over the internet. The bitcoins seized by the Marshals Department did not belong to the marketplace's administrator, Ross William Ulbricht; they were seized from Silk Road's servers, authorities said at the time.
The first auction held by the authority sold more than 26.000 BTC, with a unit value of close to $600, so this latest auction, held on March 17, demonstrates the great revaluation that the cryptocurrency has had in the last 6 years. The recent bitcoin auction was held by the General Services Administration (GSA), being the first time that this entity offers cryptocurrencies.
Kevin Kerns, a member of the GSA noted that the auction of this small part of the cryptocurrency “broke new ground for our GSA auction platform” He also noted that the entity is extremely pleased with the enthusiasm it has seen among bidders to acquire the BTC.
Those interested in participating in the auctions had to register in advance with the authorities to bid on the bitcoins for sale.
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