Topic: Thoughts on FBI dumping Silkroad BTC - page 4. (Read 6998 times)

Thanks to FBI, currently the US government is already the biggest bitcoin owner when comparing to all the other governments on the planet, they have the biggest motivation to support this economy

Them dumping all the coins at once (if they even get access to them) would actually be the best case scenario for us.

We would know it's them dumping, the price would tank, and we would get all their coins dirt cheap and won't have to worry about them any longer.

Might even make the government rich if they hold the coins long enough and bail out the debt

I don't think it's likely the FBI would dump all the coins at once, for some reasons stated above.

If they did though it could lead to a decrease in value which could lead to a quick panic sell but news would quickly spread that it was just the FBI exchanging BTC for Fiat and nothing related to anything BAD about bitcoin.  In fact many people would view it as a positive because it would give a signal of bitcoin being more legitimate if a government agency was using it to do exchanges.

From what we've seen in the past from panic sells the most likely outcome is people would quickly buy back in at better prices and the price would rebound fairly quickly. Especially considering in a case like this the price drop wouldn't be related to any bad news , simply a normal transaction taking place.

Also it's worth noting that in a large case like this involving 100's of millions of dollars, an international drug "king pin", and multiple murder for hire charges  this case isn't likely to be resolved anytime soon. It could realistically be years before those bitcoins were no longer needed for evidence in this trial,  by that time it could be true that such a large transaction wouldn't have as much of an impact. Also even ones the bitcoins are no longer needed for evidence (which could be years)  it's likely the government would still debate back and forth a bit on what to do with the bitcoins, and government tends to move very slow so it could also be awhile before they decided what to do with those bitcoins.

I do hope they sell

a) Brings the price down
b) Gets the coins out of government hands

I doubt that FBI will sell the coins at all.. They will probably scramble the source and use the coins to fish out criminals from the tor market community or any other criminals that have started to use bitcoin in their ventures. Bitcoin properties give a nice edge to orginized crime in it's efficiency in handling value. I think that in a byrocratic perspective, it's easier to keep confiscated coins and use them as an asset, then to sell coins and buy back coins later when needed.

They will not crash it.

The question is, to whom will they auction/sell?
My opinion is... the US gov and/or US agencies and/or the higher echelon leaders/employees affiliated. The US knows the potential (parliment giving the ok confirms this), they are going to keep it for themselves.  I do not see it being offered to the public, not at all. These coins will stay in their hands or in their control someway.
When I first found out about bitcoin and started reading the take down of the Silk Road and possesion of all those coins was the most major thing that got my attention.. then parliment gave the ok and it went above the 1k mark. These 3 go hand-in-hand, not a coincidence. This!... This (the coins staying within the US) is why and what will catapult (using this word is being very Conservative) BTC to the very generous speculated figure amounts ($10+k, $100+K, etc..) that have been stated on this forum numerous times.
The news of Wall St., Overstock, BTC ATM's showing up all over the world and generating the profits that they have in such a short time, Real Estate agencies taking it as payment, buying Lambo's and trips to space, Central and South Am and the possibility of Amazon taking it as payment is only more reason to get in now and get all you can while it's still in the 3 digit range.

These coins will find their way to the US reserve.

I don't think anything of it will end in the hand of any FBI affiliated groups.
Once the auction is announced it should generate quite some press interest making sure everybody gets wind of it. Then dealing with a goverment agency this way leaves very little risk of being defrauded, I think even less than dealing with any Bitcoin exchange. That alone is probably worth something, plus the potential bragging rights of having some of those "FBI Bitcoins"

Chances are that the Bitcoins will be auctioned if he is found guilty, like most spoils of illegal activities used as evidence in Federal court.  It will have basically zero impact on market price, like all other off-market BTC acquisitions.

Scopolamine? Waterboarding at Guantanamo Bay?

 

They moved the coins to a new wallet which requires control over the original Bitcoin wallet. So yes they do have the private keys.

Do they even have the private keys, or is the wallet encrypted? I'm willing to bet they can't even touch the coins, and anyone winning the bid on that auction will be stuck with a locked wallet.

Don't get your hopes up. The FBI probably will auction off their Bitcoin stash to the highest bidder, this way they have a good chance of having a decent premium on the market price.
All those prominent high worth Bitcoin advocates will stand in line to get a piece off the pie.

Huh?

I'm sur, 15 agency, at least, already asked to keep those coins for futur LEO

No worries for 1 or 2 years

How they got access to the coins will probably never be publicly known. Weak password, old unencrypted wallet-backup, deal with DPR, etc... There are various options available.

Anyway, the coins won't be sold until after the trial is over (including possible appeals). At that point, I guess they'll be auctioned like typical confiscated items. And I seriously doubt the buyer will just dump them on an exchange. In fact, for wealthy buyers that want to play by the rules as much as possible, this batch of coins will be very attractive. For them, buying the coins at a government-sanctioned auction is much better than wiring large amounts of money to an exchange in Japan, Slovenia or Bulgaria to buy coins.

Kinda wondering how the FBI even got to the coins.  Encrypted wallet?  Ya know?

I doubt they will be selling the coins anytime soon. At least until the trial is over.

I watch the values from preev.com (combined) or mtgox.

They keep going up, up up...

I would love to see all those silk road bitcoin dumped so we could all buy cheap btc before it rebounds.

if they cash out, people would know that it was just 1 single source that was likely to offload its holdings.. probably wouldn't hurt the price that much.