US authorities to auction off nearly $4M in confiscated Bitcoin

The American government is again showing that it has no interest in hodling, and is auctioning off over 600 BTC.

The US Marshals Service (USMS) announced yesterday the auction will be taking place between 8am and 2pm EST on November 5th. Oh, the irony . Nope? Just me then.

The Bitcoin being auctioned has been confiscated and seized from a number of federal, civil, and administrative cases.

Before you start rummaging through your savings to make a bid, there are a few hurdles to jump over first.

Interested bidders must register with the USMS by e-mail by midday on October 31st, and of course registrations must be approved the the US marshals office.

Oh, and you must put down a deposit of $200,000 as a sign of intent too. For whatever reason, it seems the Marshals office is keen on keeping this sale within America. While non-US bidders can bid, all payments must be made from a US bank account.

The Bitcoins are split up into seven blocks. Six blocks of 100 BTC, and one block of 60 BTC. Bidders are welcomed to bid on one or more of these blocks.

Sure, it’s kind of ironic that the government is liquidating confiscated Bitcoin to generate cash revenue, but it’s becoming fairly standard practice to sell off confiscated cryptocurrency. The proceeds usually go back into various government bodies that help fight crime.

Governments have had a hazy past when it comes to handling seized cryptocurrency. In August, a San Francisco judge ordered a cyber criminal to pay bail in Bitcoin. Days later, the court had to backpedal after it found performing the transaction to be incredibly impractical . This auction seems like a smarter move.

PSA: Withdraw these 84 altcoins from Bittrex before they get delisted on March 30

Earlier on March 9, cryptocurrency exchange desk Bittrex announced that it will delist 82 cryptocurrencies from its platform for violating its terms and conditions. It later added another two coins to the list on March 17.

The exchange has asked its users to withdraw these coins from their exchange before March 30, 2018, if they wish to keep them.

The 84 coins that will be delisted are:

8BIT

ADC

AM

AMS

APEX

ARB

BITS

BITZ

BLC

BOB

BSTY

BTA

BTC-FAIR

BTC-START

CCN

CRBIT

CRYPT

DAR

DGC

DRACO

DTC

FC2

FRK

FSC2

GEMZ

GHC

GP

GRT

HKG

HYPER

HZ

J

KR

LXC

MAX

MEC

METAL

MND

MTR

MZC

NAUT

NET

NEU

NTRN

OC

ORB

PRIME

PXI

ROOT

SCOT

SCRT

SFR

SLG

SLING

SOON

SPRTS

SSD

STEPS

STV

SWING

TES

TIT

TRI

TRK

U

UFO

UNIQ

UNIT

UNO

UTC

VIOR

VIRAL

VP

WARP

XAUR

XBB

XC

XCO

XDQ

XPY

XQN

XSEED

XTC

YBC

Out of these 84 coins, these 28 have broken blockchains or wallets, and the users will not be able to withdraw these coins from the exchange due to the faulty technology behind the coins itself:

APEX

BITS

BITZ

CRBIT

CRYPT

FSC2

HYPER

KR

LXC

MTR

NEU

OC

PRIME

ROOT

SCOT

SCRT

SFR

SLING

SSD

STEPS

U

UNIQ

VIOR

VIRAL

WARP

XDQ

XPY

XSEED

YBC

Bittrex has clarified that it reserves the right to remove any token or market from its Exchange for any reason without any prior notice.

The exchange cites the following reasons as grounds for delisting coins, although it also says that the list is not exhaustive:

Evolving regulatory standards and other compliance issues

Poor implementation of use cases or poor reception by community

Blockchain or related technology becomes compromised or defective

Token no longer supported by token team or others

Limited trading volume on the exchange or potentially suspicious trading activity

Experience with token applicant/team and their responsiveness to information requests

Violation of Bittrex’s terms of service or token listing agreement

Complaints by users or traders of the token

Even though Bittrex has not given an exact reason for delisting these coins, they all seem to have a common factor — low trading volume. For example, CoinMarketCap indicates the last 24 hours trading volume for some of the coins on this list are as follows:

8BIT – $2,000

ADC – $1,427

BSTY – $1,901

SCRT – $72

WARP – $28

In fact, many coins on the list aren’t even listed on Coinmarketcap.

Now go move your coins out of Bittrex before it’s too late – and don’t say we didn’t warn you.

No, India hasn’t banned cryptocurrencies

Reserve Bank of India issued a press release on Thursday that had a directive for withdrawing support to virtual currency businesses. The news sent a frenzy across the Indian cryptocurrency community and everyone could only talk about how India’s central bank has ‘banned’ cryptocurrencies. A massive wave of FUD followed in the market driving down the prices of cryptocurrencies in India significantly. But, did RBI just in fact ban cryptocurrencies?

RBI is a banking regulatory body and controls the monetary policies of India, but it is not a legislative body. It can set directive regulations for the bodies that come under its defined authority, but cannot control or penalize other businesses or individuals.

A law to ban the use or trade of cryptocurrencies in India has to come from either the elected governments (whether central or state) or the judiciary (Supreme Court of India or the State High Courts).

Here’s a verbatim quote of what RBI said in the press release:

The quote specifically mentions that this directive only applies to the bodies that come directly under RBI’s guidelines. This doesn’t mean that this regulation will have no effect.

All banks registered in India come under RBI’s regulation and have to follow its directives. This is bad news for cryptocurrency exchanges in particular who rely on banks for their business. The exchanges and other cryptocurrency businesses now have to find a way around using the services of Indian banks. They will have the option of dealing in cash, for example. Things have been made harder, not outlawed.

Another thing to note here is that RBI has not defined the timeline by which the regulated entities have to stop providing services to virtual currency related businesses. It is still allowed for them to continue providing services until RBI comes up with a further notice. Nothing has changed in that regard for now either. It is the market FUD following the news that is driving the prices down.

With this regulation, it is the banks that will have to discontinue dealing with cryptocurrencies businesses once RBI has given them a formal notice along with a deadline. For the rest, the government of India has still not taken any decision regarding regulating cryptocurrencies in India till now.

The Supreme Court of India had sought a response from the Indian Government for a petition asking for regulation of cryptocurrencies. The government is yet to respond.