According to the US Marshals Service, it is going to auction 50,000 Bitcoins seized from the alleged operator of Silk Road website, known as Internet black market where illegal drugs and other goods were traded.

The authorities revealed that an online auction for Bitcoins worth about $19.8 million is scheduled for the 4th of December. This is not the first time the seized cryptocurrency is sold: the Marshals Service already had such auction in June for almost 30,000 Bitcoins seized during the last year raid on Silk Road.

The latest cryptocurrency was found on computer hardware which is claimed to belong to Ross Ulbricht, the individual accused of running the original underground website. According to the government, in pursuing the case, they have recovered almost 174,000 Bitcoins, of which 145,000 were recovered from computer hardware that belonged to Ross Ulbricht and were seized at the time of his arrest.

In frameworks of a civil forfeiture proceeding, Ross Ulbricht reached a deal with the government, where they agreed to sell the Bitcoins on his hardware, and the proceeds to be held pending the outcome of Ulbricht’s case.

If you want to bid for the 50,000 Bitcoins, which will be offered in 20 blocks, you have to register by the 1st of December, with the winners being notified on the 5th of December. The Marshals Service announced that the rest of 94,000 Bitcoins from the site owner’s hardware would be auctioned later.

It is known that the first set of almost 30,000 Bitcoins recovered from Silk Road’s servers were won at auction by a single bidder. It appeared to be a Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper, but the terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ross Ulbricht, also known on the Internet as “Dread Pirate Roberts”, will face trial on the 5th of January on a multiple charges, including conspiracy, narcotics trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise. Ross Ulbricht, 30, has pleaded not guilty and refuses to comment the charges. It is also known that after the original Silk Road marketplace was shutdown, its clone emerged to continue the illegal operations online.

In the meantime, the financial observers pointed out that Bitcoin prices grow stably and are now about $400 per coin. However, this is hardly the half of the price the coins were a few months ago.