Believe it or not, but there are people out there, who find information channels, like this forum, too complex to comprehend. There are people out there who are used to getting their information from the evening news, and if some of them lose their path and wonder to the world of bitcoin, then they will get their information from places like bitcoin.org. Places that are still recommending MtGox as the first choice of exchanges.. There is no clear central information network about the integrity of different exchanges.
And if you are saying "to hell with those people, they are stupid and deserve it", then you are saying to hell with bitcoin. Because these kind of people are still the majority of society, and these people would be the future of bitcoin if bitcoin has a future.
Don't be an elitist snoob with the fact that you get your information by more complex methods. That will scare away those who you see as inferior, and then they don't want to play bitcoin with you anymore..

Regulations have to come from inside the market system, or from the entire bitcoin society. Government will only take over if there is an empty vacuum in this organizational part. Why let it?

I don't think that fleeing MtGox with tail between your legs, to quietly lick your wounds, isn't very noble if you care about the integrity of bitcoin value. Just stand up and do something, because there is always something that can be done.

As I said, I don't think that government regulations are the answer. The market can fix this problem itself, but the market (meaning: the people involved) must act. Don't be just waiting for the government to swoop in and fix all your problems.

Not forced, but most are just uninformed.
Remember that places like this forum are very complex information channels to most people.
Most people, who are the new adopters and who should be the lifeblood of bitcoin, use the information they see on places like bitcoin.org that still recommends MtGox.

In the future, there has to be a well known review place that gives quarterly grading and reviews to the integrity of different exchanges. Then all the new adopters will be just as informed about the dangers of dealing with untrustworthy exchanges. This is the only way that I can see to deal with corruption, while keeping government regulation out of the bitcoin market system.

Hello bitcoin enthusiasts,

As we see with MtGox, the current unregulated market system is not working. One of the major exchanges has given a strong blow to the trust of the market system. Their constantly increasing problems with dollar or bitcoin withdrawals are raising real concern about their solvency or technical competence. People don't know if the problems lie in solvency, or in technical incompetence, that could result at lost private keys or getting hacked with bitcoins stolen. MtGox public relations part is also almost non-existent. They won't discuss about what is the nature of the problem, how they find to fix the problem or when will they do it. It feels like they have skipped country and left the automatic e-mail answerers on.
So, you see, the situation is quite serious with MtGox, that still is a big part of the bitcoin market. If it would come out, that MtGox has lost it's customers money or just stolen it, then the entire market integrity will take a big hit. People will start to wonder if their deposited fiat or bitcoins are ever safe in an bitcoin exchange. People will start to dis-trust every exchange, even those who have worked with integrity. To the larger masses, bitcoin will be the media event where a lot of people lost their money while investing into bitcoin. Larger masses won't distinguish MtGox with bitcoin after this.

So, I'll make a proposal.
The richest people who have earned their money with bitcoin and plan on doing so in the future, should come together and form a group. The group will investigate the situation with MtGox fully and see if there is an financial solution to these troubles. In other words, buy MtGox...
The group can ask an audit over MtGox entire company history and see what is the cause of their problems. If the problem is technical incompetence or careless financial decisions, both can be fixed with new investments and proper leadership.

I am writing this because it seems that the rate of new withdrawal problems is increasing. That shifts the probability from technical issues to solvency issues. If this problem will be dealt with quickly enough, then maybe it isn't over the point of no return. Sinking of MtGox isn't just another capitalistic road bump in the bitcoin history. It will hit hard, and it could be fatal. Just imagine those sad fathers and elderly people giving interviews how they lost their money investing in bitcoin. And yes, media will talk about people losing while investing in bitcoin, not investing in MtGox. It isn't a conspiracy that media will concentrate on bitcoin, because bitcoin just has been the hot subject, and talking about the fall of bitcoin, not MtGox, will bring the better ratings.

So, don't just sit on your ass, saying that the free market will fix everything! You are the "free market", or at least you are a part of it. If you don't act, then don't be surprised if the free market isn't acting either.

Well, yes. It's not very hard to answer the first question "Why is someone doing it?" with an answer "Someone wants to make money."
But now we can ask another question "Why would someone benefit on the price being stable?". Because the price was kept stable artificially, with releasing upwards or downwards pressure as soon as the price started to move away from 800. Someone thought that it is beneficial to keep the price at this nice round number. Considering the amount of liquidity needed to power control the market price like this, we can see that this someone is no lightweight. Now another question comes up "Why a heavyweight player needs the price to be a nice round number". Well there is this option that someone is dumping and is keeping the price up artificially to get a better price. But why the nice round number? Why not just go over it to stimulate even more buys? It doesn't make much sense that a dumper would be motivated to do so.
That someone needs to promote bitcoin as an stable currency that can be used to hold or transfer money with minimum risk of loss. Now, I haven't heard that there are new well funded services out there that promote bitcoin as an Store of Value option, but as we can see, ZipZap does want to use bitcoin to start an cash transfer service. Considering the potential and the amount invested, then it's logical that there should be enough liquidity left to keep the price stable for the starting period, to show that there is no risk in using this service. Imagine if ZipZap starts it's new service and within days there are drops and their first clients actually lose a big amount of that sum that they wanted to transfer? It would be an disaster and the only clients they would get, are the ones who like the cash anonymity option to buy drugs. Without assurance that there is no risk, the cash transfer part won't ever pick up.

So, with this reasoning, I'm pretty certain in saying that this stability was created to boost the cash transfer potential of bitcoin. And if this potential is relized then we could actually see 1BTC=10 000$+. I think this is the only way that bitcoin can develop further and become something more then an innovative gambling platform.
I myself am not very sure that they will succeed though, because they have chosen an very hard task. Stability is the main factor that is needed with going to the cash transfer market. But bitcoin wasn't created to be stable, it was created for it's value to be in an constant rise. But this deflative nature of it, creates a lot of instability caused by speculation. So, if someone wants to use bitcoin to use as an intermediate tool for cash transfers, then that someone has to make bitcoin stable. But the only way to do that, is to control enough bitcoins that you can basicly be the "central bank", with regulating the inflow of new coins according to the market situation.
I think that this will be too hard and this project will fail. It will probably pick up again with new cryptos that have more favorable properties for keeping the price stable.

This link doesn't load the graphs either. Tried different browsers and even different operation systems, still nothing. I think that location must be a factor.
Europe, Estonia here..

Tell me about these different (f)actors and motivations then.
Telling me that "your theory could be wrong, because there could be other answers" isn't very constructive.

I think that they chose the wrong tactic with trying to create stability. It would have been easier to pump the market and create a new steady rise. They could of even created an illusion that a lot of people are buying bitcoins through this new service and most would believe that the rise is real. If the price is slowly rising then the cash transfer service will get good reputation, because your sum can actually rise during the transfer.
Rises can be more easily controlled and are more stable. This artificial stability makes the market nervous and can cause a big enough dump, that is too strong to control.

Hmm, the coming of the ZipZap service makes sense why someone should want to see an stable price. You can't exactly promote this bitcoin service as a good cash transfer platform, when there is a lot of volatility. No one would like to send his money through a service, where half of your money can just disappear in the market.
This gives opportunities on manipulation though, because if someone needs the price to be stable, then that someone is vulnerable to all kinds of mauling.
I think that the cash transfer market is the maximum potential that bitcoin can reach. Let's see if it succeeds or the greed inside the market will kill this project.

I recently moved my funds out of BTC-E and one reason was also because the trollbox isn't what it used to be. It used to be so, that the chatroom operators were neutral and only banned people who spammed or posted their scamsites. Now the banning is based of their personal taste on how they like someone or some subject. There are also tons of people who are actually kissing the operators asses, and if you ask why did someone get banned then there will be answers like "Ah, you want some too?". Because of this, it feels more like a chatroom that is run by teens with an inferiority complex. I can handle all the trolls, because they can be entertaining, but when the chatroom operators start getting their pleasures with practicing authority, then the environment isn't for me.

When people can't see bitcoinwisdom, then most can't see how the new rise has weak support with weak volume. They can only see that the price is rising and they will buy in with less fear.. and then there can be more big dumps. Bitstamp is currently at 790, while there is decent buy support only at 772. But I bet the religious zealots are already buying in because it seems to be going to da m00n.
Like I told yesterday, this dance will last a long time, until all the "right whales" have sold their coins to the choo choo folks for the right price.

It doesn't makes sense to scam, if one visions bitcoin to prosper for the coming decades!
If one only sees bitcoin as an temporary phenomenon, then one may think differently..

Stop blaming Apple for the shortcomings of the bitcoin market!
Apple just wants to earn some $ and sell shiny telephones. Apple approves of Bitcoin in heart, because Apple also has a lot of support from cultish behavior and Apple has no problem with that.
Apple is just sad that if Apple won't remove blockchain.info app, then Ivan and Li Wei could threaten legal actions against their sales of shiny telephones. Apple is sorry, but Ivan and Li Wei bring Apple more $ then the ones that are loyal to bitcoin. Apple needs their $ to build even shinier telephones! Apple still hopes that they can be friends with bitcoin and is sorry that everything had to end like this.

The funniest thing with bitcoin is, that if you are an con artist, then you should only follow those steps for U-U-ULTIMATE success.

1) Create an Bitcoin exchange.
2) Build trust.
3) Transfer their $ to off-shore accounts and their virtual coins to your wallet.
4) Travel to an country where there is no extradition.

or.. you can.

1) Create an Bitcoin exchange.
2) Build trust.
3) Transfer their virtual coins to your wallet.
4) Blame the disappearance of virtual coins on hacker theft or on loss of computer data.


or.. you can.

1) Create an Bitcoin exchange.
2) Build trust.
3) Start skimming your customers by transferring their $ to off-shore accounts and their virtual coins to your wallet.
4) Talk about technical difficulties and blame the banking sector while explaining the nature of increasing withdrawal problems.
5) See how long does it takes for someone to come up with an idea to call the authorities on you.
6) Escape to a country where there is no extradition or blame the situation on imperceptible incompetence.



There are so many ways to succeed in the bitcoin world as an con man. Most of their victims are against any regulation of the market system, so this is the con man heaven.
Yeah right. Free market would take care of something when it could distinguish it's head from it's ass. The Free Market of Bitcoin was pumping more and more money into MtGox, for months and months, even after constant reports of people not getting their $ nor Bitcoins.

SPOILER ALERT


Plot twist:


Ending:

Bear traps are built in a way that are scary and create panic among the regular folks. So, the sales during bear traps are constant and steady for tens of minutes, so everyone will get their time to panic.
When there are big dumps with proper intervals, then someone with a lot of coins wants out and he wants it quickly with "good enough" profits.

800 held with the choo choo folks building their buy walls near that sum that eventually got eaten by big sales. With this small volume you didn't have to buy a lot to drag the price back to 800, and then wait till new buy walls were built, and then another big dump. Now we are dropping below 800 because the number is losing the faith of the choo choo folks.
But I don't think that the drops in coming days will be very dramatic... we will probably see a new number at 780, and the dance will continue for some time like with 800.. we will probably see 760, 740.. and until even the regular folks see the pattern, and then there will be a sudden drop.

I think that people are blind to hope that BTC will still rise, even with important markets closing. People are so religious about this subject that BTCCHina's "Well, we opened our bank deposits and we hope that we aren't doing anything illegal" statements actually seem like good news to them, not acts of desperation.

Open new markets with high volume in new geographical locations and I'm back being bullish! But this whimpering with building weak hope around China's dying market is kind of pathetic...

Well we are not seeing big buys that are eating the nearby sell walls. We are seeing big sales that are eating  buy walls. So, if an illusion is created then it's surely not because they want to buy low.

I think it makes more sense to be a bear right now. I sold at the start of December and only came back couple of days ago when I bought in... seeing the low volume I went back to fiat. Now if there will be a rise then the rise won't be nearly as quick and big then the drop will be. Always be what the market is.. be a bull in a bullish market and be a bear in a bearish market.. It's foolish to try and fight it. You have to adopt.

Yeah, don't buy right now. Currently the situation is 50/50 at best, if the price will start to rise or fall. Putting your money in bitcoin is currently like using your savings to win at the casino. Wait when bitcoin has dropped then your chances that it will rise again are much bigger and only use less then 30% of your savings when investing. Even if bitcoin starts to rise, then wait till it has dropped. Never buy only because everyone else seem to be buying, it could be a trap..

That big dump in stamp gave me two thoughts:
1) An old miner/investor saw that the price isn't going anywhere, but he was in profit anyway so he just dumped, without caring much about the loss of an sudden dump.
2) The current stability is is an illusion created to keep the price high so "the right people" can get their money out with better profits. When small buy walls come up to 800, then they will get eaten. Maybe there just was enough buys near 800 and it seemed profitable for one dump and then nudge the price back to 800, then wait and repeat the process. It currently seems that because of low volume, it's not very hard to keep the price where you want it.