As BSN reported last week, a Scottish auction house handled the first-ever auction of crypto assets for UK authorities today. The auction had no reserve, but a common sense price was found for BTC anyway.
With some degree of irony, Bitcoin markets have taken a dive since the auction was announced. Lots of Bitcoin and other cryptos were sold today for a total of around 300,000 pounds sterling. According to a press release provided to this reporter:
“A single bitcoin achieved an average sale price of £6,798.80, half a bitcoin an average of £3,443.68 and a quarter of bitcoin an average of £1,972.74.”
It would seem the auction market found a common sense discount of around 1,000 pounds per BTC today for bulk buyers.
£7,000 Per BTC?!
Authorities auctioned off more than just cryptos – items such as luxury Rolex watches and expensive clothing, mostly.
Due to the unique nature of the auction – a first for the UK police service and the liquidation of a crypto criminal’s wealth – it received massive interest from all over the world, with nearly 2,000 bids coming in.
Aidan Larkin of Wilsons said:
“Being able to offer this secure solution to our partners worldwide and remove the risks that can be associated with trading with unregulated virtual currency exchanges has been a welcome addition to our award winning auction service as well as giving new and experienced investors the opportunity to buy cryptocurrencies from an insured and trusted auction house, with a proven track record in this field.”
Presumably, Bitcoin auctions as a result of government seizure will become common place as time goes on. Today’s auction was far from a first, even for Wilsons, who had previously conducted auctions for other European governments.
The most famous auction of this kind once made Tim Draper a much richer man, when he secured a large portion of Ross Ulbricht’s monumental Bitcoin stash at an auction offered by the US Marshalls service in 2015.
