Bitcoin exchange itBit bought 5 out of 21 bitcoin blocks on the auction organised by the U.S. Marshals service.

In an email to Thompson Reuter, the director of trading Bobby Cho said that his company won some of the lots.

ItBit bought 5 of 21 bitcoin blocks, containing the total of roughly 10,000 BTC. Bobby Cho declined any comments on the exact amount of the digital currency acquired by the company.

The company did not confirm Thompson Reuters' information on the blog. Their last message offers bitcoin price analysis for the week of 9 November.

The final auction to sell the bitcoins confiscated from the laptop of the Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht took place on 6 November. The auction included 21 blocks of 2,000 bitcoins each and one block of the remaining 2,341 bitcoins. Bids were accepted via email from pre-registered bidders.

The organisers promised to notify the winners by Friday. During the weekend, bitcoiners speculated about the possible winner of the auction. So far, itBit is the only participant to claim the win.

Since the seizure of the Silk Road's bitcoins in October 2013 three auctions have been held: in June and December 2014 the sums of 30,000 BTC and 50,000 BTC respectively were put on sale, and the third auction of 50,000 BTC took place last March. The first portion was won by venture capitalist Tim Draper, while the majority of the second auction's coins were bought by the Bitcoin Investment Trust bidding syndicate, leaving Draper only remaining 2,000 BTC.


Roman Korizky