Last week, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) announced the auction of roughly 30,000 bitcoin seized from the Silk Road online marketplace. With a deposit of $200,000 required to bid, the auction was effectively open only to institutional-level buyers. Given the closed-envelope nature of the auction itself, the odds of finding the names of the bidders […]

The U.S. Marshal service announced today that it will be auctioning off nearly 30,000 BTC seized from Silk Road accounts last year. Worth more than $17.5 million, the bitcoin will likely sell for a considerable discount from the market value. Interested parties must commit a refundable deposit of $200,000 from a U.S. bank by June […]

According to a new report titled “Busted, Not Broken” from the Digital Citizens Alliance, last year’s bust of the Silk Road online black market by federal authorities had the opposite of the intended effect. Time reports that instead of shutting down the “dark net” trade network after the arrest of Ross “Dread Pirate Roberts” Ulbricht, […]

In August of last year, Netherlands-based drug trafficker Cornelis Jan Slomp was arrested at Miami International Airport in a sting operation targeting users of the now-defunct Silk Road online black market site. Slomp recently plead guilty to illegally importing and distributing a massive amount of drugs from March 2012 to August 2013, including 104KG of […]

In mid-February, Silk Road 2.0 announced that it had lost nearly 4,500 BTC (around $2.6 million) to a transaction malleability attack. As the unofficial successor to the original Silk Road marketplace, which was busted by federal authorities in October of 2013, Silk Road 2.0 was already suffering from serious credibility issues. Not surprisingly, many assumed […]

Earlier this month it was reported that BitInstant co-founder was in plea deal talks with Federal authorities following his arrest in connection the now-shuttered Silk Road marketplace. Those talks appear to have broken down, and Shrem, 24, has been formally charged with multiple money laundering crimes. Shrem’s arraignment is scheduled for April 29. If convicted, […]

Last week, the IRS issued new tax guidance for bitcoin, stating that the virtual currency was a form of property rather than currency. While the decision is still controversial in bitcoin circles, at least one high-profile bitcoin user appears to be delighted with the policy: Accused Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht. In a new filing […]

Bloomberg reports that former BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem is in the process of working out a plea deal with prosecutors for his alleged role in the Silk Road drug network. Shrem was arrested in January for conspiring to launder more than $1 million dollars in drug-related funds through his company. Assistant U.S. Attorney Serrin Turner […]

When the FBI took down the original Silk Road operation last October, it also seized 29,655 Bitcoin from the site. At peak prices, the seized coins were worth $35.5 million, but thanks to the volatility of the current market, they’re currently worth less than half that amount. Last month, the US Attorney’s Office of the […]

In October of last year, the FBI seized 144,336 Bitcoin from accounts belonging to the Silk Road black market site. By the start of 2014, those coins were valued at around $114 million. Unfortunately, Bitcoin’s value has taken quite a hit in recent months, resulting in a net loss to the Federal government of nearly […]