[omgitstom]

"The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) offers property for sale to the public which has been forfeited under laws enforced or administered by the United States Department of Justice, its investigative agencies (Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), and certain other federal law enforcement agencies. "

My guess here is that bitcoin is considered property and not currency, and there are laws around this.

Edit: Looks like they are treating bitcoin as property -https://www.usmarshals.gov/foia/directives/asset_forfeiture....

[ChuckMcM]

I wonder if anyone has used this as evidence that Bitcoin should not be regulated under FinCen rules (as its property not currency). I guess it would depend in part how the Marshall's service treats foreign currency they seize.

[djrogers]

No - the actions of a bureaucrat, or a bureaucratic committee are not grounds for court decisions. A court could force them to treat bitcoin a currency, but they can't force a court to recognize bitcoin as property.

[cloudjacker]

The IRS designated it as property because they do not have the authority to designate anything as currency, only Congress does.

FinCen is not limited in congressional currency designations to carry out its regulations. Only services that exchange national currency to bitcoin are regulated under FinCen. Bitcoin is not regulated by FinCen.

[st3v3r]

It's a one time action. They're operating under what they know right now. In the future, if things change with how the government treats Bitcoin, they'll probably change their liquidation procedures accordingly.