The US Government Sold Some Bitcoin – And the Winning Bidder Got a Bargain
Since the closure of notorious and infamous US black market namely “Silk Road” in 2014 by FBI, an administration wing of the US Government has been selling Bitcoins in open public auctions convened from time to time. Latest sale ended on 17th March when the fate favored the buyer instead of the seller.
One of the major reasons why Bitcoin is continuously growing is because most of Bitcoiners do not want their adoration to end. In fact they have been holding their Bitcoins for several years and still continue to hold them for future times. Resultantly, with regard to Bitcoin, the number of Bitcoin buyers are higher than its sellers.
However, to the US Government, sale of Bitcoins is like getting rid of coins.
There was once an infamous black market operating in the US called the “Silk Road”. However, at federal level operation was carried out by US’s FBI which resulted in the closure of the black market in 2014. During this operation, FBI managed to seize off at least 170,000 Bitcoins which were then taken in possession by the FBI.
Since then the seized Bitcoins have been put up for sale through public auctions from time to time. These auctions have been carried out by an administration wing of the US Government namely General Service Administration (GSA). Usually items put for auction by GSA includes unnecessary and unwanted furniture and fittings, several parts of aero-planes as well as school buses. However, selling Bitcoins is also being done by GSA since the closure of the Silk Road.
The recent auction convened by GSA was held for two days i.e. 16th and 17th of March, 2021. In this two day auction session, the item put for sale was Bitcoin, exactly 0.7501 BTC. Although, the auction was not arranged for 1 whole Bitcoin, even then it managed to attract good number of audience. At the end of the auction, the successfully bidder acquired this Bitcoin for a cost of US$ 40,000 only @ US$ 54,000 per coin.
But what if the US Government had kept the entire Bitcoins intact and sold them in the present. For the time being the federal budget announcement recently by the US Government is in deficit. However, if Bitcoins would have been sold in this time then US Government had earned something like US$ 9.5 Billion.
Yet the fate favored the successful bidder instead of the US Government.
Right after the close of auction at US$ 40,000 at the prevailing exchange rate i.e. US$ 54,000 p/coin, Bitcoin’s value soared. The spike was so boosted that it took the value of Bitcoin from US$ 54,000 to US$ 59,000. The bidder certainly got much more than what he had bargained for.
As a result, the GSA failed to earn at least US$ 5,000 from the bidder on the sale of Bitcoin.
