US wraps up major $40 million Bitcoin auction

So, the United States Marshals Service just wrapped up an auction for 4,041 Bitcoin. These coins were taken in a bunch of federal, civil, and administrative cases. Interestingly, over $200,000 of that Bitcoin came from a case involving two drug dealers in Alabama. This isn’t the first time the USMS has sold off some seized Bitcoin; they've sold about 185,230 coins in total for around $151,440,000.

Why do they allow such a low minimum bid?  Well this certainly put some pressure on coin prices. But it is only 4041 coins  which is around 2.2 days worth of mining 2.2 x 12.5 x 144 = 3960

During the first few days I was reading this I really never thought of anything unusual happening from a US agency selling Bitcoin that they have confiscated, but after re-reading this article about the successful auction I did became suspicious of the US Marshals having a big motive behind this. Since this was a public auction and the winners will have to wire transfer their payments in order to receive their Bitcoin doesn't it make the winners be identified through their bank accounts' KYC? The BTC literally will be coming from the authorities and there is a big possibility that all of those auctioned Bitcoins are now monitored and chances are the winners as well will be monitored after they obtain it. Is it possible that this is some kind of sneaky way to do surveillance for Bitcoin users around the US?

If my math is correct, the minimum bid was $50 per bitcoin! Probably not. I don't think bidders are worried about government surveillance. I believe bidders actually pay a premium above market for government auctioned bitcoins since they are whitelisted and there is no possibility of unwanted taint. They are buying from the government so they can hold and sell the bitcoins out in the open using traditional legal channels.

It'd be a very stupid move to buy coins off USMS and try to then go off the government's radar. That is consciously getting yourself in trouble. Even if you pay a premium, you're not on a loss. To buy $40M worth of BTC, it means you have to either keep fulfilling the cheapest Sell Orders from the order book until you get to fill your $40M order (which most likely means creating a long ass candle on the chart and buying at exaggerated prices) or you have to become a buy wall (which is not necessarily a bad idea, but you get the point). Through auction, your "order" (bid) is fulfilled instantly. There's no time to wait - you win the bid, you get the coins.

At least that is what the government want's you to know. Even if these Bitcoins are whitelisted and is cleared from all of its taint there are no assurances that the government is not tracking you somehow. It only takes them knowing your bank account as well as the receiving address they will use in order for them to track your activities with their Bitcoin. So if they are really looking into all of your transactions all kinds of sending and receiving that will be done in that address would just arouse their suspicion on your activity.

If you're that paranoid in terms of privacy or anonymity then you can make steps that government wont able to trace you up when it comes to activity by either mixing up those coins or broken it on several addresses for them to lost track. I was just shocked on how much they do bid up for each coin.Its way too cheap actually considering that supply is becoming scarce as the years passed by.

Like I said there is a chance of the authorities monitoring your activities from the start and sending it to a mixing service or distributing it on several wallets will be the first wrong move for the winners as this will just arouse the suspicion more from them. If the winners are as clean as what they are thinking then why would they just try to lose their trace on them to begin with? I think their only option would be is to just hold the Bitcoins they won and make it as their investment or use it as money rather than do anything to arouse their suspicion more from you.

This year the US Marshals might exceed their 2018 Bitcoin auction total of $50 million.  This February's minimum lot size was 40.54 Bitcoin. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-marshals-auction-40m-bitcoin-163040198.html

'But will they regret it?' It's time Bitcoin fans gave up worrying about the US government missing out on those mad gainz. I'm sure the government will do just fine but feel free to donate to them if you're getting sleepless nights over it. It's not just any old prick who can bid. You had to pre register and put money down otherwise it would trolled into the ground. The people who did bid are hardly going to be worried about the government knowing where the coins go or disguising their origin. They'll want to preserve that stamp of authenticity.