Ernst & Young to auction 24,518 bitcoins worth $12.9 mn

Global professional services firm Ernst & Young says it wili auction 24,518 BTC (worth $12.9 million), in Australia, originally confiscated from a user of defunct online dark market Silk Road.

The sale would mark the end of a process that started in late 2014 when law enforcement officials in Australia confiscated the bitcoins from Richard Pollard, a Melbourne native was later handed down an 11-year prison term commercial drug trafficking.

According to a statement today by Ernst & Young, the auction would be held over a 48-hour period beginning at 12.01am AEST on 20 June 2016. On the lines of earlier auctions held by the US Marshals Service (USMS) in the US, bitcoins for sale would be offered in blocks of 2,000 BTC (worth just over $1 million), with a total of 11 blocks set for sale.

In statements, EY Transactions partner Adam Nikitins said he believed that the auction would likely attract buyers from North America and Europe, given that they were among the most active participants in the four previous auctions held in the US.

Nikitins said, "We are targeting sophisticated investors who can see the value of investing in a growing digital asset."

Meanwhile, Bitcoin values surged over the weekend with the digital currency hitting its highest level since the summer of 2014 - with one Bitcoin trading for $549 US dollars at one point.

Though many economists are sceptical about the crypto-currency, Bitcoins worth over €7.2 billion are currently in circulation and transactions had quadrupled since 2012.

The financial services and consultancy firm Deloitte plans to establish a Blockchain Lab in Dublin, where it would build a team of 50 highly skilled developers and designers over the next 18 months.

Blockchain is the coded technology that underpins the virtual currency. However, the currency's facility to allow multiple users access secure databases for complex but secure financial transfers, payments and verification processes held significant potential for the banking and financial services industry.