US courts file motion to sell Bitcoin
The US attorney's office has plans to sell 513 Bitcoin worth more than $8 million in the near future.
Prosecutors in Utah seized 513.1490393 Bitcoin, a BWM and a Ford truck from Aaron Shamo after indicting him and six others in December 2016. They also seized a similar amount of Bitcoin Cash that's worth another $1.5m at today's prices.
The were prosecuted for distributing controlled substances and money laundering.
"The BTC and BCH have been transferred to a Government wallet. Due to the volatile market for cryptocurrencies, the BTC and BCH risk losing value during the pendency of the forfeiture proceedings," the statement says.
"The costs of storing and maintaining these items during the pendency of the sentencing and forfeiture proceedings may significantly reduce the funds available from their sale."
The documents say the Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash will be sold on one or more commercial exchanges but will be transferred there in increments of less than 50 coins to guard against fraud or error.
"The parties all accept that there are inherent risks to conducting transactions in cryptocurrencies and the parties agree to hold harmless the agents and agencies in the transaction in a good-faith effort to fulfill the purpose of the stipulated motion," the motion said.
It's an interesting insight into how the government sells confiscated Bitcoin but even $8 million worth of BTC is going to be swallowed up in the market very easily.
Bitcoin is trading at $15,886 today after briefly touching $17,000 on the weekend.
