The US Marshals Service (USMS), the federal agency tasked with managing the auction of more than 30,000 BTC seized from defunct online black market Silk Road, has released new data about Friday’s event.
The agency told CoinDesk that 45 registered bidders participated in the event, and that 63 bids were received over the course of the auction, which ran from 6am EST to 6pm EST on 27th June.
The USMS suggests that more information about the auction could be forthcoming, though the agency was vague about what it would ultimately release.
A spokesperson told CoinDesk:
“The award process is ongoing, so we do not have the final number of winning bidders yet.”
The number of confirmed bidders in the auction, however, continued to grow today, with The Wall Street Journal indicating that Boston-based bitcoin financial services company Circle had participated.
With the news, Circle joins other notable names in the bitcoin industry as confirmed bidders including Barry Silbert’s investment vehicles SecondMarket and Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT), BitFury investor Binary Financial, bitcoin-based hedge fund Pantera Capital and online retailer Bitcoin Shop.
The data release follows a similar announcement from SecondMarket and BIT CEO Barry Silbert, who indicated this weekend that 42 bidders participated in his investment syndicate.
The syndicate model allowed SecondMarket and BIT to place bids on behalf of foreign investors, as well as those who wanted to place smaller bids between $25,000 and $50,000 through its offering. As such, it is unlikely that such data has been incorporated into the latest US Marshals data release.
As recently as 26th June, the agency told CoinDesk that it was still deliberating how much information it would release about the auction, and whether such official announcements would include the names of any winning bidder or bidders.
CoinDesk will continue to monitor this developing story.
USMS Image via Wikipedia Creative Commons