Australian Govt to sell 24,500 BTC

[Room101]

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/victorian-government-to-sell-93-million-in-seized-bitcoins-20150316-1lzyg2.html

[Q7]

What? And I thought there were auctions by the US marshals and so didn't have the slightest idea about this one. Any idea when is this going to happen? I mean based on the price quoted on the article, if the bitcoins get sold above the market price, then there shouldn't be anything to worry about. The only concern is when it is sold below market price.

[innocent93]

The article said Victorian government will sell these bitcoins on the open market in coming months instead of auction sale, I'm afraid that if the Bitcoins were dumped into Market, how the market will react to this, drop sharply?

[Vhawk23]

that's a lot of BTC... I hope i had thoose BTC
i'll do investment though

[Mobius]

I'm not too concerned. The bearwhale sold 30,000 rather quickly. Just see it as an opportunity.

[NUFCrichard]

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/victorian-government-to-sell-93-million-in-seized-bitcoins-20150316-1lzyg2.html

I wasn't aware that any other governments had seized Bitcoins, I wonder how many others have too!
They pick their times to sell very badly, they got them late in 2013, but waited until now to sell, losing 70% of thie value in the meantime.

They also announce well in advance that they will sell, it's like when Gordon Brown sold the UKs gold at a record low price having told the market beforehand.. stupid

[micky123]

Interesting,

I had no idea that there were a bunch of Bitcoins seized by the Australian government too. Who knows how many other Bitcoins have been seized by other governments? Imo, property seized in this manner should be destroyed, similar to illegal alcohol, pirated DVDs or Drugs. When the governments destroy something they have deemed to be illegal they are doing the right thing.

Otoh, if they are selling the property to fund their own selfish desires, then they should not even talk of banning bitcoin ever, especially since they are profiting off of it. If they do destroy them, the value of Bitcoin should ideally go higher because of the vaccuum left by the 25K BTC (or indeed more if the US govt destroys them too). By not destroying BTC, governments are lending credibility to Bitcoin by branding it a CURRENCY and any attempt to ban Bitcoin in future will meet with huge resistance. I suppose we should be happy with governments selling BTC.  

[futureofbitcoin]

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/victorian-government-to-sell-93-million-in-seized-bitcoins-20150316-1lzyg2.html

I wasn't aware that any other governments had seized Bitcoins, I wonder how many others have too!
They pick their times to sell very badly, they got them late in 2013, but waited until now to sell, losing 70% of thie value in the meantime.

They also announce well in advance that they will sell, it's like when Gordon Brown sold the UKs gold at a record low price having told the market beforehand.. stupid

They're not the ones that are stupid. The ones who don't understand are.

Seriously, do you think another 10M or so matters to the government? They can just print that amount without much fuss. It's a PR game. If they sold it in secret or whatever, there would be people saying the government is manipulating the market or whatever.

Besides, I'm sure there are laws preventing the government from doing stealth transactions like that.

[randy8777]

i guess they will follow the exact method of the us marshals to get rid of these coins.
they too want the most out of these coins. can't see them auctioning it for less than the market price.

[Ayle56]

i guess they will follow the exact method of the us marshals to get rid of these coins.
they too want the most out of these coins. can't see them auctioning it for less than the market price.

Here's an article about it from the Sydney Morning Herald. It says they an adviser is recommending selling most on the market and auctioning a small amount US style, but nothing has been decided yet.

They got the coins from a Silk Road drugs dealer.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/victorian-government-to-sell-93-million-in-seized-bitcoins-20150316-1lzyg2.html

[medUSA]

They are not selling the coins in exchanges. "Market" means anyone who wants to buy. Now that the word is out, bidders from the US Marshall coins will swamp at these coins. There is a demand for large sums of bitcoin such as this. If I am the government, I would hold them for another year at least.

[HarmonLi]

Well it's 'only' 1 week of mining block rewards that's being sold. So it's not like it's something completely insanely high all of a sudden. I really wonder what happens if governments get access to even bigger stashes at some point!

[gentlemand]

The article said Victorian government will sell these bitcoins on the open market in coming months instead of auction sale, I'm afraid that if the Bitcoins were dumped into Market, how the market will react to this, drop sharply?

A government body accountable to others is hardly likely to send their property to some sketchy exchange in a foreign country. That would be like the US government selling off a drug baron's mansion on alibaba and getting a chargeback.

[kwukduck]

Bye bye 300!
50 here we come!

[sgk]

If they're sold on open market, I wonder if it would have any impact on the price on exchanges.
24,500 is a large sum, but then again the BearWhale sold 30,000 BTC without bringing the price down much.

What are the popular exchanges operating in Australia?
We will see sell walls on them if the gov decides to use Australian exchanges with good reputation.

[HarmonLi]

Alright, more than a day passed and the market didn't really care about this. I bet even the feds could just go ahead and dump the rest of their coins now and Barry or someone would buy them all, at least for spot price. Bullish.

[ajareselde]

Its interesting that they thought its best for their seized coins to be sold on open market, but actually it isnt, it would be much more profitable to set up an auction
like feds did. It wouldnt tip down the price, and they would get above market price for their coins.
I wonder why they dont simply hold them for few years more, and take 2-3x the money theyre taking now..

cheers

[uki]

Well it's 'only' 1 week of mining block rewards that's being sold. So it's not like it's something completely insanely high all of a sudden. I really wonder what happens if governments get access to even bigger stashes at some point!

Exectly, let's not exaggerate each news about the Bitcoin auction. It is much less coins than the last US Marshalls auction that had no impact at all. Expect the same here. And move on to the next news.

[freedomno1]

Its interesting that they thought its best for their seized coins to be sold on open market, but actually it isnt, it would be much more profitable to set up an auction
like feds did. It wouldnt tip down the price, and they would get above market price for their coins.
I wonder why they dont simply hold them for few years more, and take 2-3x the money theyre taking now..

cheers

You know governments short term focus vs a long term strategy
They likely want to use this money right away before the next government comes in etc.
Anyways a bit interesting that the Australians always set their auctions after the American one
Since this is the second one or third if I recall correctly.

[thejaytiesto]

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/victorian-government-to-sell-93-million-in-seized-bitcoins-20150316-1lzyg2.html

If these governments knew any idea of what's coming they would buy them for themselves, or at least try to store a part of them.