02 July 2014 / New York Times – The venture capitalist Tim Draper was the sole winning bidder of the nearly 30,000 Bitcoins auctioned on Friday by the United States Marshals Service, several people close to the auction said on Wednesday.
Avish Bhama, the co-founder and chief executive of the Bitcoin exchange Vaurum, said in an email that Mr. Draper was the auction winner and that he had teamed up with Vaurum to provide Bitcoin liquidity to emerging markets.
“Vaurum has launched trading platforms in emerging markets, and we will be partnering with Tim to leverage the pool of 30,000 bitcoins as a liquidity source,” Mr. Bhama wrote. “It’s still quite difficult to get access to Bitcoin in these developing economies — and that’s exactly where it is needed the most.”
Mr. Draper could not immediately be reached for comment, but he provided a statement through Mr. Bhama.
“Bitcoin frees people from trying to operate in a modern market economy with weak currencies. With the help of Vaurum and this newly purchased bitcoin, we expect to be able to create new services that can provide liquidity and confidence to markets that have been hamstrung by weak currencies,” Mr. Draper said in the statement. “Of course, no one is totally secure in holding their own country’s currency. We want to enable people to hold and trade bitcoin to secure themselves against weakening currencies.”….. Read more
