Want To Buy Bitcoin? Sweden’s Debt Collection Agency Is Selling In An Auction
The Swedish Enforcement Agency, called Kronofogden, is about to auction 4.59 BTC. This would be the second auction coming from the same agency as the first one took place back in 2017. The transaction is set to take place today and it will be entirely online.
Bitcoin Online Auction in Sweden
Kronofodgen, Sweden’s Enforcement Authority, has obtained 4.59 BTC and is ready to auction it off to the highest bidder. The market price is now around 370,000 kronor or $37,600 or about $8,191 per Bitcoin. The happening is taking place today and it will allow potential buyers to place their respective bids. The agency’s operations developer, Johanees Paulson, offered his opinion on the matter:
“Many people ask us why we’re auctioning off the currency and not converting it ourselves. The answer is that there isn’t an infrastructure which meets our needs. We need to do it in a quality-assured way, in order to be sure that the money won’t disappear on the way.”
History is on the agency’s side as they have issued a successful auction before. In 2017 Kronofodgen sold 0.6 BTC with an estimated market value of 27,600 kronor at that time. However, the highest bid went to an undisclosed buyer who paid 43,000 kronor.
Back then, the agency claimed that they had acquired the cryptocurrency by assessing a debt against a certain company. This year, there is no official information on where the significantly higher amount of Bitcoin has come from.
Other Government Bitcoin Auctions
Bitcoin auctions have been held from other governments and entities as well. In 2016, the U.S. Marshals Service seized 2,700 bitcoins from the illicit Silk Road marketplace and later sold it for $1.6 million. Only 5 people were bidding and the winner was anonymous. Interestingly enough, Bitcoin’s price has skyrocketed since then and today the same amount would be worth over $22 million.
An even more sizeable portion of bitcoins was sold by Ernst & Young again in 2017. Initially, the Australian government confiscated 24.518 bitcoins from yet another Silk Road user a year prior. It was reported that the auction was successful, with 5 winners and all transactions were worth around $16 million.
The aforementioned Silk Road was the biggest anonymous black market for illegal drugs. It was finally shut down by the FBI in 2013 and the agency reportedly seized 144,000 bitcoins. Later, 44,000 of them were sold to 4 winners and they gathered $14.6 million.
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