What just happened? A federal judge has given the Department of Justice the green light to sell off thousands of Bitcoins tied to the government's shutdown of the Silk Road online black market. A Nevada-based venture capital firm, Battle Born Investments, attempted to block the sale as it sought to learn the identity of "Individual X." According to the government, Individual X hacked the Silk Road and stole the Bitcoins in question. The 69,370 Bitcoins have a street value of more than $6.3 billion. A single Bitcoin trades for $91,832 as of this writing.The timing of the decision is worth noting. Donald Trump, who said at a Bitcoin conference last year that the government would hold on to 100 percent of the Bitcoins in its possession if he were to be elected, is set to take office on January 20. It is unclear if Trump will attempt to block the liquidation.A sudden sell-off of nearly 70,000 Bitcoins would have an adverse impact on the market, so it's unlikely the government would take that route. Instead, they'd probably break the coins up into smaller batches as they've done in the past.It's also worth noting that the court's decision doesn't mandate a sale but rather, simply paves the way for a potential sale.It's unclear exactly how many Bitcoins the US government has seized over the years that are tied to the Silk Road. In mid-2014, the government auctioned off nearly 30,000 coins all of which were purchased by investor Tim Draper. Another auction in December of the same year saw the government offload 50,000 more Bitcoins. Another 50,000 Bitcoins were auctioned off in March 2015. // Related StoriesBitcoin has been on the upswing ever since early November, and hit a new all-time high of $106K in mid-December. The market has cooled a bit since then but with Trump's second term kicking off next week, the volatile cryptocurrency could very well be gearing up for yet another wild run.Image credit: Diana Light