The US Marshals Service auctioned off 3,813 Bitcoins on Monday
Earlier in the month, the US Marshals Service announced that they would hold an off-exchange auction for 3,813 Bitcoins that were seized in 11 separate cases.
Among the bidders, Riot Blockchain was one of them and their CEO John O'Rourke confirmed in a phone interview that they sought many more of the Bitcoin in the auction but were outbid.
The auction attracted 62 bidders and received a total of 111 bids - though the US Marshals Service is not announcing the names of the auction winners or the total amount raised.
But O'Rourke says that they acquired the 500 Bitcoins at about market price at the time on Monday.
He also adds that "I believe we'll be heading north of $50,000 market price within the next 12 to 18 months" and "our strategy at Riot is to accumulate Bitcoin and to provide our investors as much direct exposure as we can, hence we decided to participate in the auction".
Bitcoin remains steady in trading thus far as prices continue to bounce off the $10,000 support handle but sellers remain in control as we are still below the 100-day MA and the 50.0 retracement level on the daily chart.
Near-term, buyers are also finding it difficult to regain control as Bitcoin is still trading below its 100 and 200-hour MAs.
