Bitcoin Forum

There's an incredible surge in volume on BTC-e at the moment: http://bitcoinity.org/markets/btce/USD (http://bitcoinity.org/markets/btce/USD)! It seems to be caused by some bot gone awry, as some incoherent buying and selling is happening. Someone may be losing big time on fees currently. What do you think is going on?

Difficult to say for sure.  Seems to be more buying than selling at the moment, so it could just be someone trying to get in while the price is dipping.  Someone just sunk $70k into a buy for just shy of BTC150.  If I had that kind of money to throw around, I'd probably join them.

Indeed! maybe someone is cashing out)) :P

wow that is totally insane maybe we are on the verge of something?

I don't know it's difficult to say, I mean basically the price is dipping quite a bit at the moment, so there's not just selling happening. But whenever someone is selling BTC, another person is actually buying them. But if this really is just some bot buying and selling to and from himself, it basically is making a big loss due to the fees!

We broke the 500's and the 490's, plus it is weekend.

That is enough to wake up some big bots.

I've been thinking that myself. You can just feel it in the air that BTC is gearing up for another rocket trip.

Whats interesting also is the buy support is actually pretty stong on BTC-e with all things considered.... we have only 2k users online.  We have over $5 million in BTC buy orders and only 7500 BTC available to buy.   This is pretty bullish but we need a reason to go to the moon.

Yeah the bot has gone mad and this is why it happened
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/malfunctioning-bitcoin-trader-bot-causes-extremely-high-volume-bitcoin-exchange-btc-e/2014/08/31?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=malfunctioning-bitcoin-trader-bot-causes-extremely-high-volume-bitcoin-exchange-btc-e

You do actually see that we crashed well into the $470s today!? I wouldn't exactly call that bullish and the harbinger for a new rocket or moon trip! :D What makes you think this is a positive thing?

Willie has returned!

Only this time, he now works for Skynet.   :o

https://i.imgur.com/zkan2dM.jpg

Volatility is up, that means more people entering the market. Maybe even big money!

You do realize that the trading on BTC-e is some bot gone mad/awry/crazy or whatever!? We've had volatility for some weeks now again, but it just seems to be going down for the time being, which isn't a good sign.

Could be:

1) Multiple bots fighting each other on trend.
2) Multiple bots "painting" the tape to create the illusion of resistance.

3) hoards of russian buyers and sellers not knowing what to do if they are blocked from SWIFT banking transfers ;D

they'll just hack jpmorgan, goldmansachs, bankofamerica etc., but to be honest banning russia from swift will actually kill usd as a reserve currency, so no way usa will ever ban them, russians will go away themselves when their version of swift is ready

Maybe there are some whales trying to manipulate the market so the volume is high.

I don't think so. The volume is incredibly high. Also, the buying/selling seems to follow some very odd pattern and happens at a very fast pace. This ain't no manipulation by whales. It's a bot.

I think the bot just got switched off. Back to normal soon.

In time of big fluctuation, increase volume is expected as some think it is a bargain to buy at cheaper price.

And if selling continue, the recent buyer might just suddenly turn bearish and sell what they just bought and further increase more volume and bigger drop in price.

LTC/USD volume was also extremely high. It could have been an arbitrage play, or perhaps two dueling arbitrage bots.



The guy that wrote that article has no idea. He makes it seem like he knows, but he is just guessing like everyone else.

Btc-e past 24hr trade volume: 40,000btc

btc-e normal 24hr trade volume: ~4000 btc

Therefore, estimated extra volume:   40,000 - 4000 =  36,000btc extra traded

If we assume this was 2 malfunctioning bots, and with a trade fee of 0.2%, this would mean the wallet balance of the bot would only needed to contain 0.2% (1/500th) of the extra 36,000btc traded.

36,000 x 0.2% = 72btc

So from this calculation, if the malfunctioning bot theory is true then someone has just lost about 72btc... Although, I'm not to sure about that. Would it really have continued for over a day?


Another theory/possibility is that this trading was intentional, perhaps by a big whale trying to cause panic and a price crash before buying back in at lower price.  Although, for this be profitable you would have to first recoup the 72btc I calculated above.

So.... 72btc x $500 = $36,000 . Let's assume $36,000 was lost in fees to btc-e

As the price has only fallen $20 (4%), down to $480 since the "attack" started, this trader/manipulator would have to buy at least 1875btc ($900,000) worth of bitcoin to just marginally benefit from the new lower price he created, and to buy this quantity he would push the price right back up to above $500.  

Maybe they thought their actions would have a much stronger impact on the market price?? Or, maybe I'm completely wrong!

Nice theories! I guess they may be true, but I think it's even more probable that it is some BTC-e-internal bot trying to get the trading volume higher in order to get more exposure for BTC-e (which they accomplished) and also appear in the first slot on Bitcoinity!

If it were btc-e simply trying to boost trade volume i would expect it to build up much more naturally. Otherwise I really can't see how they would benefit from pulling a stunt like this!!!

Yeah, that's what I - amongst a few others here - thought as well, but then again does it matter? Do the people over at BTC-e care usually? I guess the Mere Exposure Effect applies in any case! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect))

If you look at the Fibonacci fan lines from high of $668.42 down to $309 on the btc-e chart, it is quite obvious that if the price had remained above $500 for another 12-24 hours then the price would have broke through the final line.  (and there was some pretty strong resistance at $500 before that strange trading began). 

EDIT: Also I was just looking at the bitstamp chart, the fibonacci fan from high of $683.86 down to $442 was also approaching a crucial moment, the 38.2% retracement.     This trading happened at a pivotal moment in both bitstamp and btc-e price. Make of it what you will.

  Thank you bot or whale.
   Just bought 1 BTC at $480 . I hope the price drops a wee bit more.  ;D

When I last looked btc-e had over 40k bitcoin transactions, thats fucking huge for them. bitstamp had like 9k.. what the hell is going on? some major dumpers and some major buyers... Something is going on...

Just your run of the mill whale market manipulation. Nothing to be concerned about really, the game remains the same for us plebs.