Venture capitalist Tim Draper wins Silk Road $19m bitcoin auction
Venture capitalist Tim Draper has been revealed as the winner of last Friday’s auction of 30,000 bitcoins, worth $19m (£11m), which were seized by US Marshals from the operators of the Silk Road, an online marketplace allegedly used for sales of illegal drugs and money-laundering.
Reuters reported that Draper saw off 45 other bidders, who submitted 63 sealed bids in the 27 June auction, which sold off 29.65m bitcoins in 10 separate blocks. Bitcoins are a computer-generated currency that rely on cryptography to remain secure.
Draper issued a statement yesterday saying he would use the bitcoins to “provide liquidity and confidence to markets that have been hamstrung by weak currencies” in a partnership with Vaurum, a Californian bitcoin startup.
Vaurum is a year-old bitcoin exchange for financial institutions that counts Draper, his son Adam and AOL co-founder Steve Case among its investors.