Since the Marshals Service announced the second auction in November, Bitcoin’s price has held steady at around $375, according to CoinDesk. The auction appeared to have little effect on the price on Friday. In the days after the first auction in June, the price of Bitcoin climbed to about $655 from around $570.

Hmmm…

Thursday’s auction of 50,000 Bitcoins, worth around $19 million, was the second held by the Marshals Service for Bitcoins seized in connection with the defunct online marketplace Silk Road. In June, it sold nearly 30,000 of the Bitcoins seized from Silk Road, which was shut down in October 2013 after authorities said it was an online marketplace for illegal drugs and other illicit activities. Because of the slump in Bitcoin’s price since the June auction, when it was trading around $600, the total value for sale in both auctions was about equal.

Only $24m at the time?

In 2014, the price of Bitcoin experienced significant fluctuations. The year started with Bitcoin priced at over $800, but by the end of the year, its price had dropped to around $320. This period was marked by various events impacting the cryptocurrency market, including the infamous Mt. Gox exchange hack, which played a major role in the declining price during that year. This decline was part of the early days of Bitcoin’s history when the market was more volatile and sensitive to such events.