Bitcoin Forum

I just noticed something ... thought it would be an interesting topic to point out.

Looking at http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/ , in a 30 days period, looks like MTGOX had a USD13355001.63 in transactions. Yes, that's USD13 million. Now, I'm a poor guy, so to me, that's ALOT!!!

MtGox charges 0.65% for each trade. MtGox is making USD 13.355 million * 0.65% = USD86807.51 / month or roughly USD1 million / year?

It's actually twice that since they charge .65% to both parties.

It's probably not a great extrapolation though since there's only 2-3 months of volume like that, and they've been charging reduced rates for the last month.

That's really crazy ...  :o

mtgox's own money gives security for hacks and other trouble!
i've no problems with fees... they also defend high frequency bots

Half the time I try to log in durring a big market move the site is down from all of the bots.

well, i for one thinks he deserves it.  can you imagine all the stress involved with all the press and events.  and yet everything is now better!

he also just donated 17000 btc to the losers of bitomat.  thats pretty generous.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitomat claimed that MtGox bought Bitomat. So it looks like it's more of a takeover of Bitomat and assuming its liabilities rather than donation.

MT.Gox bought bitplomats customers, smart move actually, and with the drop in the cost of bicoin it wasn't too expensive.

That fee only applies to buying Bitcoins, not selling.

.65%=.65/100 not .65

So if 13 million went through they get 84,500.

84,500 is sweet fuck all to run a company on, hope they are making more then that.

That's just a month ...

And the overhead is likely negligible. A few thousand for all of the monthly expenses in hardware and bandwidth? Maybe another couple thousand to pay for labor and additional development, outsourced or not?

Overall, I'd say it's probably ~80% or better profit. How much of that remains in BTCs and how much is exchanged for other currencies, only Mt. Gox knows. From the $4,096 payment for the Humble Indie Bundle 3, probably plenty has been cashed in.

In the end, does it matter? The service provided, aside from a few major growing pains, has been relatively robust and now much more secure. They certainly know they've got a golden goose with that exchange - they won't kill it.

At USD$85k/month revenue, that's more than Facebook was generating when it was about the same age and had many times more accounts (from what information I've seen).

If they're smart, they're building up a war chest of funds and looking at large-scale expansion. Down payments on Ferraris during the rapid growth phase would be worrying.

Their expenses are not huge, but they are not negligible, either. They have to pay for several employees.  They've had some fraud losses they have to make good. The current management bought the business, so they have a capital cost to repay. They've had to give some big discounts to meet competition and to retain customers after their screwups. 

If you sell bitcoins they charge you .65% of the USD you made

If you buy bitcoins they charge you .65% of the Bitcoins you bought

They do not trade the bitcoins on Mtgox market

Whether Mt. Gox trades on their own market remains an open question. There have been periods when people were complaining that their newly entered trades were delayed for minutes while trading continued. Mt. Gox may have been front-running the market during that period. (If you can look at the order queue and put your trades in at the head of it, you can make no-risk trades.  This is front-running.)