It’s after 5 p.m. ET in New York, which means winners of the auction of seized Silk Road bitcoins conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service are starting to be notified.
There were nine blocks of 3,000 bitcoins up for grabs as well as one block of 2,656.51306529. The bitcoin total, 29,656.51306529 coins, is worth about $18.9 million at the current exchange rate.
The price paid for the coins, as well as the winning bidders, is still unknown. A spokesperson for the Marshals Office said that it would not be releasing any details of the auction today and remained vague about what and when it would say in the future.
So far, a few people have come forward to say that they lost, including Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Investment Trust syndicate.
Announcement: The SecondMarket / Bitcoin Investment Trust bidding syndicate for the US Marshals bitcoin auction was outbid on all blocks—
Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) June 30, 2014
Alex Waters posted a screenshot on Reddit of the email he received about his losing bid, which he said was between $400 and $500. Coinfire also reported that Josh Jones, co-founder of DreamHost, also lost his bid in that range as well.
Rumors on Twitter suggest that the losing bid prices could have been as high as $665, well above the $570 market price on Friday when they had to place their bids.
@barrysilbert brother Alan reveals approximate average Bitcoin bid price from @secondmarket syndicate was $665: twitter.com/alansilbert/st…—
(@BitcoinBreak) June 30, 2014
Thanks to all the speculation and uncertainty though, the price has jumped from $598 to $639 today. If the feds had dumped all of the coins on the market, the price would’ve surely dropped. But instead, the rumors of failed bid prices above market cost is driving demand.
Here’s what the price has looked like in the past 24 hours:
We’ll be monitoring this story for updates as winners and losers come forward.
Related research and analysis from Gigaom Research:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
