Feds Auctioning Off Drug Dealer Bitcoins at Liquidation Prices

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The FBI doesn't care much for the future of cryptocurrency: over $17 million worth of wacky internet money, seized from internet drug barons on the Silk Road, will be dumped via auction. Now's your chance to buy some bargain Bitcoins and feel like you're in a cool crime thriller.

The auction itself, which the Wall Street Journal smartly speculates could depress the value of Bitcoin worldwide, begins June 27th. So, you have until then to get the $200,000 deposit together (that's US dollars, not pixel dust) before the bidding begins. If that's too much, too soon, this is just the beginning: the Journal also reports that FBI auctioneers are preparing to offload another (roughly) $83 million worth of seized Silk Road coins sometime down the line.

This must represent some sort of turning point for the still-shady virtual currency. Bitcoin now it joins the company of tinted pink hummers, jet skis—and of course, cold hard cash—in the pantheon of seized drug dealer accoutrements.

Photo: Getty