Uncle Sam doesn’t want to share his bitcoin just yet.
The US government has delayed plans to announce the winners of its auction to sell off $18 million worth of the cybercurrency, sources said.
The government’s auction, to sell 29,656 of its 144,336 stash, closed on Friday as planned. In total, the US Marshals Service received 63 bids from 45 bidders for the bitcoin, said Lynzey Donahue, a spokeswoman for the Marshals Service.
But plans to alert the winners by the close of business on Monday stalled.
“The award process is ongoing,“ Donahue said.
“Not today,” confirmed another spokesman for the Marshals Service. “I’m not at liberty to say why. The process is still ongoing,” he said.
The Marshals Service announced the auction last month as part of the government’s plan to sell down the massive bitcoin stockpile it seized last year when Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara shut down covert e-commerce site Silk Road.
The seizure made the federal government one of the largest owners of bitcoin. Its total stake, including the auctioned bitcoin, is worth $89 million, up from $85 million at the time it announced the auction — but down from its peak of $150 million.