US Marshals: Latest Bitcoin Auction Timed To Avoid Market Disruption

The US Marshals Service (USMS) has revealed it intends to auction potentially all of the 144,000 BTC confiscated from Ross Ulbricht during its Silk Road investigation in the coming months, but that it has elected to break up the sales in order to prevent disruptions to the bitcoin market.
The USMS announced on 17th November that it will auction off just 50,000 BTC previously owned by Ulbricht, who stands accused of operating the now-defunct Silk Road online black marketplace. The bidding registration for this auction, which is currently underway, will be open to interested parties until 1st December.
USMS spokesperson Lynzey Donahue told CoinDesk that the USMS intends to hold additional auctions for the remainder of Ulbricht’s bitcoin holdings in the months ahead, but that it has yet to set dates for any subsequent sales. When asked, Donahue acknowledged that the auctions were being held over an undisclosed period of time to avoid potential market problems.
Donahue said:

This post was published at Coin Desk on November 17, 2014.