The US Government Auctions $377K Worth of Bitcoin and Litecoin

The U.S. government sold Bitcoin and Litecoin worth $377K via the General Services Administration (GSA). The auction closed at 5 p.m. on Monday. The government auction house has sold digital assets in 11 lots and so far, the lots have seen active bidding.

From June 18 to Monday, June 21, the General Services Administration, otherwise known as the GSA, auctioned two types of crypto assets. GSA auction bidders buy 11 lots of crypto that hold approximately 8.93 BTC and 150.2 LTC.

The U.S. government estimates the value to be in the ballpark of $377,000 for the aggregate BTC and LTC lots. The GSA announcement notes that the entity has sold crypto assets on behalf of the U.S. government since the beginning of 2021.

To date, the GSA has auctioned crypto assets three times and sold 16.99 BTC in total. The three previous GSA auctions settled at $937,092 for the bitcoin assets sold on the platform. The GSA advertisement also tries to entice the reader by saying: “Become a part of the growing cryptocurrency community by placing a winning bid during GSA Auctions’ next cryptocurrency sale.”

“Experienced investors recognize a good opportunity when they see it, which is why our auctions have generated so much enthusiasm among the crypto community,” Thomas Meiron, Regional Commissioner for GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service said in a statement. “With the addition of a new type of cryptocurrency, this promises to be one of our most exciting auctions of the year.”

The new type of digital asset Meiron refers to is Litecoin (LTC), as prior auctions only saw the sale of BTC. The GSA was created in 1949 and is a solution for government-owned surplus, forfeited goods, and federal personal property they no longer require.

The independent agency of the U.S. government allows the general public, businesses, and other government agencies to bid on items in an exclusive fashion. Local and international GSA auction buyers are mandated to purchase electronically.

The electronic only-purchasing arrangement is due to the President’s declaration of a national emergency on March 23, 2020. Since then, the GSA no longer accepts payments made by cash, money order, cashier’s check, and official or personal checks.

The description of the crypto lots being sold explains that when a bidder wins they must accept the responsibility of paying the mining network fee. Bidding has been active so far and dozens of offers have been made on the GSA’s current stash of digital assets.