Bitcoin has proven its volatility, gotten tangled up in legal messes and been under fire from regulators. Yet, it still has some popularity in the bitcoin-believing community which wants to keep its hands (virtually) involved in the cryptocurrency.

Like the group of bitcoin enthusiasts who wanted to get their hands on the 50,000 bitcoins that were auctioned off by the United States Marshals Service Thursday (March 5). At the current market rate, that's about $14 million, all of which came from the illegal online drug ring known as the Silk Road. While the Dread Pirate Roberts, Ross Ulbricht, awaits his fate for sentencing in May, the bitcoins that were once funding his billion-dollar operation will soon be in the hands of other bitcoin tycoons. He faces life in prison and was found guilty on Feb. 4 of seven federal charges, including money laundering, computer hacking and drug trafficking.

According to a New York Times report on the auction, the Feds received 34 bids for the bitcoins -- which were sold in 20 blocks for amounts ranging from 2,000 bitcoins-3,000 bitcoins per block -- during the six-hour auction. Winners were expected be notified Friday. This round of bidding for the bitcoins got more attention then an auction held in December, which involved 11 bidders making 27 bids, the Times reported.

The bitcoins auctioned off last week were the ones stripped from Ulbricht's computer, which was taken as evidence following his arrest in October 2013. That same computer was used to help convict the 30-year-old Libertarian free-market enthusiast who said he had started the Silk Road as an economic experiment. The amount of bitcoins seized from Ulbricht was valued somewhere between $18 million and $20 million at the time of the seizure.

While it's hard to predict the buyer's Internet, the increase in attention in this most recent auction certainly suggests that — despite the negative bitcoin rhetoric, and its recent price slump — there still is a loyal bitcoin following. And according to the Times report, the government has seized more than 170,000 bitcoins and there still remains plenty to sell.