Bitcoin Auction Winner Draper to Bid Again in December

Venture capitalist Tim Draper, the sole winner in a June auction of about 30,000 bitcoins, said he plans to bid again when the U.S. government sells an even bigger cache of the virtual currency next month.

I am a big believer in bitcoin, and I believe it to be one of the most important technologies that have come along in our lifetime, Draper said in an e-mail to Bloomberg News. The price is even better than the last auction.

The U.S. Marshals Service said yesterday it plans to sell 50,000 bitcoins in a Dec. 4 auction, as it gradually gets rid of the bitcoins seized after the illicit Silk Road marketplace was shut down last year and its operator, Ross William Ulbricht, was arrested.

Draper, co-founder of investment firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, paid an undisclosed sum in the last auction, which attracted 45 bidders. The 30,000 bitcoins were worth about $19 million based on exchange prices at the time.

Since then, the value of bitcoins has declined about 42 percent to $373.64 apiece today, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, which represents an average of bitcoin prices across leading global exchanges. That values that 50,000 being auctioned at almost $19 million.

In June, Draper said he planned to help provide access to bitcoins in developing economies and use the bitcoins won in the auction as a source of liquidity.

I have made 17 investments in bitcoin companies so far, and I plan to make more, Draper wrote in the e-mail.

To contact the reporter on this story: Olga Kharif in Portland at okharif@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah Rabil at srabil@bloomberg.net Reed Stevenson

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Bitcoin Auction Winner Draper to Bid Again in December