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Silk Road marketplace forfeits $28m of digital currency

The secretive online bitcoin marketplace, Silk Road, has forfeited $28 million worth of the digital currency, according to reports from US prosecutors.

Prosecutors shut the website last year after it was discovered users were trading in illegal drugs, with the bitcoins allegedly used to "facilitate money laundering".

"We continue our efforts to take the profit out of crime and signal to those who would turn to the dark web for illicit activity that they have chosen the wrong path," US prosecutor Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Mr Bharara explained that the bitcoins seized will be traded like any other asset seized following money laundering and criminal activity.

"These Bitcoins were forfeited not because they are Bitcoins, but because they were, as the court found, the proceeds of crimes," he said.

US authorities have filed charges against Ross William Ulbricht, the alleged owner of the site, who is also known as Dread Pirate Roberts, DPR and Silk Road.

By Asim Shah