Bitcoin Forum

Why Bitfinex is at 1263 and Bitstampt at 1210?

less btc sellers on finex, probably because they fear something bad is already going on there. what's rather puzzling is why someone would buy btc at that premium at all. maybe some have no choice?

Has anyone tried doing arbitrage? should be easy to make free money by moving BTC there and selling then rebuying back on the cheaper exchange ad infinitum? whats the problem?

That is the concern. Why all of a sudden their rates become like that and really appealing for others to do an arbitrage trading.

And to think that they have a recent problem, it's really doubtful to continue using their services. Well honestly I stopped trading there after their recent issues last year where all my balances turned into their own token. Bitfinex is my first exchanged that I used in trading but today I preferred other platforms after they totally ruined my trust to them.

Because wire deposits are paused (https://www.bitfinex.com/posts/200).

Since people can neither deposit nor withdraw fiat, they:

- Buy BTC so that they can get their funds out, so the price goes up.
- Can't do arbitrage, because if they buy Bitcoin cheaper elsewhere to sell it at a higher price on Bitfinex their fiat will be stuck there.

Probably because their fiat accounts has been blocked and you can't withdrawal any fiat from there? but has anyone tried to deposit bitcoin and buy any of the alts they're trading? I agree it doesn't make any economic sense to offer $50 above the market price, maybe they are trying to pack their bags and run away?

Did you mean if there is panic buy on the bitfinex market? I can't withdraw fiat on bitfinex the possible thing if i buy bitcoin and sold them in another site.

Am I the only one thinking that this smells like Mt.Gox?

many are thinking it so you are not alone. but i don't think it is true.

if they wanted to run away and scam they would have closed everything down. i may not have been around for Mt Gox but i remember Cryptsy well enough. they continued to give promise they open wallets but they never did.

bitfinex crypto wallets are open and people are withdrawing cryptocurrencies. that is THE reason for price rise!

Sure, they could have left right after the hack, but now it looks like the price isn't actually backed by USD.

It's like Tether, except Tether's balance sheets are what's making it clear they're failing to keep each USDT backed by a dollar, whereas with Bitfinex it's shady activities behind the scenes and long periods of no one actually knowing whether they'll be able to process fiat withdrawals in the future.  The higher price on there is starting to prove that people might never get their money back.  If I had funds on there I would have pulled them off ages ago.

It won't be as bad as Gox though, since Bitfinex only controls a small amount of the market whereas Gox controlled most of it at the time.

I think it will not happen. we know that bitfinex is a great company. of course they have the confidence and very good security system. they would not leave us with poverty.

I think for now  they are just want to safe their bitcoin these next following months.. we know every year that there are trading site are down every year remember the other trading site before that we thought that it will not the same as other trading site but . they also hacked..

I think for bitfinex maybe the reason that is why the margin is different remember the last year happen so some investor just want their bitcoin safe..

this was a funny post, specially since the wounds of bitfinex getting hacked is not yet healed completely. i mean it is not even 1 year since the hack incident and they have not yet paid their customers in full.
...and you say good security.

and it has nothing to do with the current situation anyways. it is their Taiwan bank blocking their accounts!

Bitfinex have had $180million in funds frozen by Wells Fargo and in addition none of the Taiwanese banks will deal with them.

Fiat withdrawals have stopped. So people are getting their money out by buying btc and withdrawing, hence the higher price (due to higher demand).

Don't deposit any money on bitfinex and if you have coins there, withdraw them - better safe than sorry.

That would be the best possible way for people to react, but I am fairly sure that just a tiny fraction of them will actually do so. Most people will only learn when things cost them a heavy load of money, but then it's already too late to act. I am not trying to scare people off, but the Mtgox smell starts to become stronger and stronger.

Well yes, that's by definition how it works if Bitfinex is insolvent - it basically becomes a ponzi scheme. Those few who get out get out, the rest is inevitably trapped. The USD trapped is always going to be trapped, by getting out you're only changing >who< gets trapped. The majority would inevitably end up trapped.

For those who have still trust and want to continue with Bitfinex then it's up to you. If they will still operate and become more stable then good for you but I just don't want to add some risk in my part that's why Im having a statement like that above and this post.

The recent hack last year is already enough in wrecking my trust against them after using them for years. Regret really happens at the end of the day and I don't want to wait for that "end of the day". Goodluck to all.

How can people buy bitcoins when clearly the seller is not going to be able to withdrawal fiat themselves? so it's kind of a trap for sellers right?
Unless they have their own coins and selling their own coins at high prices with this opportunity?
What ever you do right now in bitfinex will result in one way trap of your money stuck whether you trade btc or other altcoins you can't take out any fiat.

Try withdrawing your fiat, you can't.

That's why you buy BTC at a premium to withdraw that and sell on another exchange to cut their losses, nothing but smart trading.

Finex is going to be MtGox all over again so you have a choice; 1) Lose everything. 2) Buy BTC at premium and cash out at other exchange and take your small losses.

And yes, this is basically a trap for sellers, people that don't know what's going on and think they can sell their btc at a premium.

I assume people who sell BTC at the moment expect that they can withdraw FIAT again in the coming days/weeks. I also still trust Bitfinex that they will find a solution.

I acutually think this was bound to happen sooner or later that banks will try to stop dealings with cryto-exchanges and I don´t really see the fault 100% on Bitfinex's side. Other exchanges just don´t accept FIAT at all because of this problemactic.

Don't preach.
It might as well be a trap for buyers, that will react to this temporary withdrawal block and buy at premium just to wake up with the next day and watch it all go back to normal.
If they got blocked by a bank, they're trying to find another one. Not their fault, stuff happens and it's nothing like MtGox, that was scamming for months before shutting down.

Many people on this thread have said that it is because the difference between the orders on particular cryptocurrency exchanges, but this is not a real reason.

Bitfinex have suspened wire deposits for now, so you are not able to deposit or withdraw the fiat money that you have on their website.
It means you can only buy bitcoins, because if you are going to sell them, you won't cash out the funds in $.

I assume that they are just buying bitcoins for the cash that left on their accounts, and they are simply transferring it to the other places.
For me, it looks like many people with fiat over there are panicking, and doing all they can to get out their money out of the Bitfinex.

It had been stated several post before you, but I am also puzzled why people are selling their Bitcoin when USD withdrawal is suspended,  a sane person would rather move out of the site and sell somewhere , where he can withdraw his cash.  Unless Bitfinex have the coins and sold them  at higher price.  Maybe a trap to the buyer to buy premium BTC.  I hope this are not the hacked coins :D

Bitcoin tends to be somewhat overpriced in China and the other East Asian nations, as there the demand is much more than the supply. I don't know much about the Bitfinex userbase, but I have heard that most of their users are from East Asia.

You should spend some time analyzing this whole situation where Bitfinex has been a problem magnet for quite a long time. It has only caused the market to react in a negative manner, with as ultimate deep low the "hack" of last year. It's not for nothing that banks have stopped doing business with Bitfinex (shady behaviour, not registering itself properly according to the laws, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was more). Bitfinex has just started to behave in the exact same manner as MtGox was doing back then. Give it some time, eventually the destructive route Bitfinex is walking will be similar to the one from MtGox. People have been warned since last year, but not many have taken any of these warnings seriously.

because in bitfinex support margin trading
ussualy exchanger is support margin trading, price can highers or lowerst
because trade can get leverage so capital money use trading can big too

maybe next time try reading the topic first or maybe read some news and then post a comment. and even if you are completely unaware of the situation margin trading can not cause a difference that big which is about $60 most of the times. and besides margin trading is not a new feature, it has been on their platform for as long as i can remember.

It is only USD that this applies to.  Any other currency they accept should work fine.  If you read the Blog on their site it explains what is going on.

In the China case it's a little different, since they can neither withdraw fiat or BTC.

Once these two issues pass, and more particularly scaling is agreed upon, we can resume moon as normal.  I'm interested to see what happens with Seg on litecoin to see if that is any indication of what could be in store.

Layer 2's and SmartRSK will kind of make most of the alts less useful (a couple of years perhaps?) .  ETH looks like it's here to stay, along with some of the more privacy based coins.

Right now I don't see bitfinex to be at a premium, it's just in near stasis while other exchange users are sitting and watching wondering what is happening in the BTC world.

Frankly, it doesn't matter that Bitfinex is not only monopolist, that exchange is still considered to be top cryptocurrency market, even after the their previous fail.
We all remember how low price of bitcoin dropped after the hack. If they  fail again, we will have price crash - maybe even as low as below $900 level.
This is the blog you were talkingabout? http://blog.bitfinex.com/ (http://blog.bitfinex.com/) I can't find any info about current high USD price.
Last post is from 2 weeks ago, about BFX Tokens. There is, however, an info on their twitter about this situation.

that is easier said that done.
and these 2 are already two big issues dramas in bitcoin community and when they end another one will start just like always!

we are all interested to see SegWit on litecoin, particularly because it is copy of bitcoin!
but it seems like we have to wait a long wait! 2 days ago someone (they say it was Wu) directed a big amount of hashrate against SegWit on litecoin and killed the 80% down to 71%!

of course it is. when you have deep pockets supporting it, the pockets deep enough to put multiple huge buy walls as big as 5000BTC to prevent the crash, that means you are here to stay with millions of dollars funding the manipulations. 8)

Maybe a sane person (long term investor) wants to benefit from the situation. Long-term investors would think that these issues, which Bitfinex is currently experiencing, would disappear after applying/implementing SegWit, and they could get an easy profit from the panic happening recently on the exchange. It still is a reasonable thinking, in my opinion.

Bitfinex is a shady exchange, nothing can change that. I don't see the relation between Bitfinex being an absolute downer of an exchange, with something scaling related as SegWit? I think you're mixing things up, or don't know what the actual problem is that Bitfinex currently experiences. Mind explaining what Bitfinex and SegWit have to do with each other? It's a complete mistery to me.

This is rumoured that Bitfinex might go out of bussiness soon, so people leave it, and price stay as it is. Price being that high, few buy and you enter in a viscious circle.

because you can't deposit, they have issue with their bank, they closed their deposit, and now they are waiting on what to do, prolly going to change their bank if they want to keep operating

many traders are gamblers, they are gambling on this situation and i think it is safe to say with good odds too. they sell their coins at a higher price and keep the profit on the exchange and buy back when all this is done and back to normal.
i say good odds because it is the bank that is messing with them and bitfinex is allowing withdrawals of crypto.

That happened a few years ago on MT Gox. The price there were much more expensive than other exchanges. Then it was in trouble.

Another big problem if you can't withdraw your money from bitfinex. The possible thing if you buy or convert your fiat to the another coin and use them to cashout your money as an off-chain transaction. if they are changing their bank account and that means if the remaining balance will have freezed on the previous account. At least if he can transfer to another or a new one.

This is full statement of Bitfinex:

"This announcement is further to our announcement about withdrawal delays on April 13, 2017.

Beginning April 18, 2017, all incoming wires to Bitfinex will be blocked and refused by our Taiwan banks.
This applies to all fiat currencies at the present time. Accordingly, we ask customers to avoid sending incoming wires to us until further notice, effective immediately.

We continue to work on alternative solutions for customers that wish to either deposit or withdraw in fiat, and are making progress in this regard.
We will continue to update our customers as and when we have more information to share."

Source: https://www.bitfinex.com/posts/200 (https://www.bitfinex.com/posts/200)

How will Bitfinex go out of business?  They can make oodles of money by buying BTC on other exchanges and selling them to the panic buyers on their own exchange making all that juicy premium.  They don't have to worry about wire transferring their own funds to themselves, so no worries there.

On a side note, its interesting how well Bitcoin works to get around the control of the banks in the case of trying to transfer funds from Bitfinex to customers.  The price premium is a direct result of its usefulness.  The USD Bitfinex is holding becomes worth less and less as people realize they can't obtain it haha.

As far as I know bitfinex have much more than other sites just because many use it and don't dump their btc that often. Another reason is this current problem in bitfinex since no one can deposit at their exchange right now and because of it dumping strength there is lessened as well as buy. If that is fixed I'm sure a dump will happen at bitfinex.

As far as I know bitfinex have much more than other sites just because many use it and don't dump their btc that often. Another reason is this current problem in bitfinex since no one can deposit at their exchange right now and because of it dumping strength there is lessened as well as buy. If that is fixed I'm sure a dump will happen at bitfinex.

Because people cannot get their money out of there with wire so they are buying bitcoin and getting out of there as fast as they can, I also suppose that we are seeing something similar to what happened in the past with Mt. Gox.

That could happen. However, it seems the spread has reduced a bit.

Instead of around $100 in difference, it's now around $80. It doesn't mean anything unless the premium will drop further in the coming days. If that would happen without public notice, then the chances are high that certain entities know something that others don't -- insider trading. MtGox eventually didn't allow people to cash out anything -- no coins, no funds. As long as Bitfinex allows people to cash out digital currencies, people will not panic.

The difference that's been quoted in the price is something similar to that happened with the exchange values of price in India during the time of demonetization that happened during the last few months of the year 2016. But this has been done based on the market requirement, same might be the cause with bitfinex.

The clients and an exchange itself will not panic as long as there will be a people sending bitcoins there with a hope of easy money on arbitrage. From an exchange stand point of view its not a big deal if they are going to give someone else bitcoins.