The United Nations Marshall Services (UNMS), a Federal Law Enforcement Agency at the United Nations will conduct the auction of 4,040 confiscated Bitcoins this month.
According to UNMS’ official declaration, the agency is planning to sell confiscated Bitcoins worth $37 million (4,040.54069820 Bitcoins). To participate in the auction, the user needs to deposit $2,00,000. As informed by UNMS, they will return the amount deposited to the non-winning parties at the end of the auction once the Bitcoins are transferred to the winning parties.
Per the data, $37.4 million worth bitcoins are confiscated in various federal criminal, civil, and administrative proceedings.
The Bidders need to deposit $2,00,000 before February 18 to participate
As per the Federal Law Enforcement Agency, the bidders will be allowed to sign-up from February 3 up to February 12. Later, the auction will be conducted online on February 18, between 8 AM EST until 2 PM EST. What’s more interesting is that the winners will be announced at 5 PM EST on the same day.
However, the UNMS has confirmed in its announcement that they may take some additional time depending on the number of bids and the complexity of the review process they are opting for.
Bitcoin bid divisions for the auction
According to the announcement, the auction will be held similar to the previous auctions of 3800 Bitcoin conducted by UNMS in January 2018. Noticeably, this Bitcoin auction will be categorized into series; 2500, 1000, 500, and 40.54069820 Bitcoin.
Series A – 2500 Bitcoins (Available Blocks – 5)
Series B – 1000 Bitcoins (Available Blocks – 10)
Series C – 500 Bitcoins (Available Blocks – 10)
Series D – 40.54069820 (Available Blocks – 1)
Research suggests that the authorities from other countries also decided to conduct the bidding similarly. The most common example is the UK and Ireland-based auction house Wilson Auctions who conducted their first Bitcoin auction in February 2018. Previous to that, the South-Korean government announced to bid 216 Bitcoins in 2017.