At the close of the auction, the highest bidder grabbed the bitcoin share at a price of $53,104. That’s about 21 percent higher than the market value, meaning the government auction generated a significant premium. The financial battle to win the bitcoin slice outpaced the broader market, where the price of bitcoin has risen slightly since the start of the week. The auction comes amid an extraordinary rally in cryptocurrency markets, and as bitcoin recently surpassed $60,000 for the first time. Marshals Service has been auctioning bitcoin since 2014, following the FBI’s crackdown on the digital black market Silk Road, seizing more than 170,000 bitcoin.

Source: Washington Post March 17, 2021 19:32 UTC