The US government will auction off $53 million of bitcoins

The US Marshals Service announced Thursday that it plans to auction off approximately 3,813 bitcoins, worth about $53 million, that were seized in "various federal criminal, civil, and administrative cases."
Potential bidders have to register before January 19, and will need to put down a cool $200,000 deposit in order to participate. The deposit must be in US dollars and transferred via ACH. The Department of Justice does not appear to accept bitcoin.
The coins will be auctioned off in blocks of 500, 100, and 813 — meaning the smallest amount you could potentially purchase would be 100 BTC. At Thursday's prices, that would be roughly $1.409 million, though it's not clear whether the government auction will fetch prices below or above where the cryptocurrency is trading on other exchanges.
Since it's not an open auction and bids are secret, winners will be notified on January 22, the agency says.
The price of bitcoin was down roughly 13% last week, as many cryptocurrencies fell following reports South Korea was planning to crack down on exchanges.