The United States Marshals Service is preparing to auction another 50,000 bitcions - worth around $11.7 million at current prices - seized in connection with the Silk Road dark web marketplace.
The auction will take place on 5 March, a month after Silk Road kingpin Ross Ulbricht was found guilty of seven charges related to his running of the dark web bazaar where shoppers bought and sold illegal goods with bitcoin.
This is the third time the Feds have sought to offload bitcoins seized during the 2013 Silk Road bust. In the first auction, last July, 30,000 coins were sold in a single lot to venture capitalist Tim Draper. A second tranche of 50,000 went in December, with New York-based exchange SecondMarket winning 48,000.
The haul for the government this time is likely to be considerably lower, with bitcoin now trading at around $233, down from around $400 late last year and $600 in the summer. Details of the latest auction can be found here.