Update: Investor Tim Draper has been revealed as the winner of the US Marshals' Bitcoin auction.
The US Marshals' auction of the nearly 30,000 Bitcoins seized from underground drug marketplace Silk Road is now complete. Officials say a single, undisclosed bidder outbid everyone else and won the 10 individual auctions, taking home the entire lot of Bitcoins.
The auction took place on June 27 with the Marshals promising to notify winners on June 30. A total of 45 registered bidders reportedly took place in the auction, submitting 63 bids in the process.The Bitcoins were offered up in 10 blocks with the first nine consisting of 3,000 coins each and the final block having 2,656.51306529 coins.
The transfer of Bitcoins to the winner took place on July 1, the Marshals office said.
As CoinDesk points out, some key bidders were among the pool of 45 vying for the Bitcoins. SecondMarket founder and CEO Barry Silbert revealed on Twitter that his auction syndicate consisted of 42 bidders and 186 bids. He claims the syndicate was outbid on all blocks.
The auction process didn't go off without a hitch, however. A few weeks ago, the US Marshals accidentally leaked the e-mail identities of nearly 20 potential bidders. With e-mail addresses in hand, it didn't take long for the web to figure out the identities of those potential bidders.
The US Marshals office said the blunder was in no way intentional and apologized for the mistake.
Do you think the winning bidder will eventually come forward?