The US Marshals Service announced Thursday that it will hold an auction next month to dispose of 3,813 bitcoins, worth a cool $52 million at today’s price. The coins were seized in “various federal criminal, civil, and administrative cases”.
Selling off Bitcoin is a routine process for the US Marshals Service, but the recent boom in cryptocurrency has meant that the enforcement arm of the judicial system is now essentially gambling in crypto-currency. Given the massive price swings that Bitcoin has experienced in the last three months, the precise timing of an auction could have huge implications for how much money the courts receive. But for investors, the simplistic nature of the auction and the large number of coins involved present a one-off opportunity to make a tremendous profit.
Prospective investors have until January 19th to register, and wannabe investors will have to put down a $200,000 deposit before the auction to prove that they’re serious. The coins are being auctioned off in blocks, rather than individually, which is what makes this particular auction interesting. The smallest block is 500 coins, worth around $1.4 million. Large volumes of Bitcoin are not traded as frequently as you’d believe, as most transactions involve a fraction of one coin. Investors may well be able to buy a block for below current market value, and then arbitrage it off in smaller pieces to turn a quick profit. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]While financial experts have been debating the stability of bitcoins — a form of digital currency that has taken the market by storm — one famous former Wall Street player has chimed in with an urgent message.
Jordan Belfort, the real-life “Wolf of Wall Street,” warned potential buyers interested in investing in bitcoins that that there was no real value to the currency, calling it a “bubble.”
“I’m certain at the end of the day it will end up close to zero, that’s the bottom line,” Belfort told Fox Business in an interview published Friday.
Bitcoin was created in 2008, and its stock value recently experienced a dramatic spike, as one unit of the cryptocurrency was worth around $1,000 in January 2017, but has seen recent values upwards of $15,000, according to U.S. Consumer Finance.
Bitcoins can be used to buy merchandise anonymously, and because the currency is decentralized, it has no ties to any specific country or financial institution, meaning it’s not subject to regulation. – READ MORE
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