The bitcoin investment fund Pantera Capital is collecting syndicate bids to win the upcoming auction of the Federal Marshals Service. The minimum bid is $50,000. Pantera will receive 1% of each winning bid.

The American investment fund posted a statement about the new syndicate a few hours after the regulator disclosed the date of the new auction.

As Coinfox reported earlier, US Marshals have announced a new auction of the Silk Road heritage, to take place in March. 50,000 BTC will be sold in 20 blocks of 2,000 BTC and 3,000 BTC. This is the third auction of this kind. The first one finished in June 2014, when Tim Draper bought 30,000 bitcoins from US Marshals. The second one finished last December – this time, Draper and SecondMarket bought 50,000 bitcoins from the regulator.

Pantera Capital is ready to help interested bidders to get past the difficulties of the complex registration process. It has several conditions. First, a bidder must send their proposed bid size and price  to the fund, together with the premium/discount for the expected stock price. Secondly, a bidder should be ready to wire the whole amount of the bid to Pantera Capital before February 26th.

In addition to this, potential bidders also need to fill in a special anti-money laundering form. Pantera Capital is ready to accept bids from abroad. Finally, members of the syndicate will need to provide an address to which the bitcoins will be sent should the syndicate win. The investment fund will keep 1% of all winning bids.

This attempt to form a successful syndicate is the third in the history of Pantera Capital. It took part in the June bitcoin auction but did not succeed. In December 2014, another syndicate, created by SecondMarket, won most of the bitcoin put up for the second auction with 48,000 bitcoins that were distributed among 104 participants. This time, Pantera Capital hopes to be the winner – if only in terms of public relations.