Us Government Selling Over $17m In Seized Bitcoins

The US Marshals service is auctioning off millions of dollars worth of seized bitcoins, many remaining from the wallet of the now convicted Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht was setenced to life in Prison in May this year for running the Silk Road darkweb market place, making millions of dollars in the process.

Today marks the 4th auction of Bitcoins the US has held since 2014. With 44,000 Bitcoins to be sold today the government is set to make a pretty nice chunk of cash itself with the current conversion rate equalling $17.3m.

This is the second boost to Bitcoin's notoriety in as many weeks with the EU admitting that it is a real currency, allowing it to be exchanged tax free. The annoucement sent Bitcoin's price rocketing back up to break the $500 mark, the highest since the bubble of 1BTC being worth $1000 in 2014 before tumbling back down to $180 in January.

The volatile nature of bitcoin's value has left economists and businesses unsure exactly what to make of the currency but with a recent study estimating Bitcoin to become the world's sixth largest reserve currency, we can be pretty sure that Bitcoin and the general concept of cryptocurrency isn't going away any time soon.