Well, ladies and gentlemen, the moment has arrived. The third US Marshals Service Silk Road bitcoin auction has come and gone, and many are wondering what the outcome will be. Unfortunately for us, that news is not being released until tomorrow on Friday, so until then we’ll have to keep our anticipation in check and make sure we don’t start sweating bullets wondering about what has occurred.
The auction began at 8 AM Eastern Standard Time, and ceased about six hours later at 2 PM, and tomorrow, someone will go home much richer with about 50,000 of alleged drug kingpin Ross Ulbricht’s bitcoins in hand.
As with the first and second auctions which took place in July and December of last year, Tim Draper is said to be a heavy bidder this time around, and naturally many are curious about what he’ll win. The first auction labeled Draper as the sole winner; the venture capitalist took home a staggering 29,655 bitcoins that day that formerly belonged to Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht. The second auction saw Draper as being “not so lucky,” this time taking home about 2,000 bitcoins and falling into second place as SecondMarket, owned and founded by Barry Silbert, earned the number one spot and received about 48,000 bitcoins.
This time, we’ll just have to wait and see what position Draper happens to earn. He commented on the prospect of the third auction, saying that it was:
“Probably the best deal anyone will get.”
He’ll have competition from Silbert once again it seems, as the SecondMarket creator has mentioned that he indeed has plans to participate in the present auction, and both entities will seemingly have to duke it out with investment fund Pantera Capital, founded by Dan Morehead, who exclaimed that they would also be getting their bid on in the latest auction.
Bitcoin recently fell to about $267, which ultimately leads many to believe that the auction had little impact on the digital currency’s price, but the results of tomorrow may unveil a different case.