SecondMarket wins 48,000 Bitcoin in U.S. Marshals auction

The U.S. Marshals Service has just revealed that a company called SecondMarket has won the lion’s share of its second Bitcoin auction.

“Because SecondMarket has voluntarily come forward, we can confirm that it was the winner of 48,000 bitcoins, and the transfer of those Bitcoins was completed Monday,” Lynzey Donahue at the U.S. Marshal’s office said in an email.

Last week, investor Tim Draper announced that he had won 2,000 Bitcoin from this recent auction. The release caused little surprise; over the summer Draper pulled in 30,000 Bitcoin from the U.S. Marshals’ first Bitcoin auction. The bid was made on behalf of his venture firm Draper Associates.

SecondMarket is a marketplace for buying and selling liquid assets, including private company stock, and has an interest in the Bitcoin market.

Through its Bitcoin Investment Trust, the company set up a syndicate that would allow individuals to participate in the U.S. Marshals’ July Bitcoin auction. Though they weren’t successful the first time around, last week’s auction proved to be a victory. The company won 19 of the 20 blocks of Bitcoin on auction, worth approximately $166 million.