Yep, I placed a couple of bids that were quickly topped.

This link has a good discussion of using NITBB or NITSO (No Intention to Buy Bid or No Intention to Sell Offer) orders to try and manipulate the price.  But I struggle to see how a bid at a penny would accomplish those goals.  https://stockalyzing.com/stock-trading-school/trading-lesson/2/

Saw that.  If you recall, a while ago there were also some insanely high asks as well.

My guess is that it is either:

1 - Some random guy placed the limit order just for fun, and the broker has to post it.

2 - Someone trying to game some kind of very stupid trading bot (ie a bot that factors in total depth, regardless of size)

3 - Someone hoping to catch a "fat finger" mistake - i.e. someone placing a large sell order and mistakenly marking it as a market instead of a limit order.

Oops.  And yep, looks like we closed with around $850k.

Wonder if GBTC can make it to $1m in volume today, almost at $80k at this time.

As the premium to NAV keeps declining, FOMO on the premium may be accelerating some sales.

Yes, I think you are correct.  I should have said that NAV is the price at which accredited investors can purchase directly from an Authorized Participant.  And according to the last annual report, the only authorized participant currently is SecondMarket. 

I wish I could find a copy of the original prospectus.  I'm curious if the initial trust had all the complexities related to authorized participants, or if it was a simpler structure, and was amended once they refined the OTC listing approach, in anticipation of eventually behaving more like a true ETF.

Jorge's description isn't exactly how it works.  Every business day, the Trust calculates its Net Asset Value (NAV).  NAV is value of bitcoin and any cash, less accrued fees, expenses and some other stuff.  As fee is earned or other expenses are paid, cash is used to pay those expenses, and bitcoin is sold if necessary.  So NAV is constantly adjusting based on value of bitcoin and fees / expenses accrued.  See here, searching for "Non-GAAP Net Asset Value." https://www.otciq.com/otciq/ajax/showFinancialReportById.pdf?id=135313

If and when redemptions are resumed, the NAV would be the basis on which redemptions are made.  The NAV is also the price at which accredited investors can purchase directly from BIT, although those shares would not be publicly tradeable for 12 months.

By the same token, when looking at the premium / discount of the share price vs. bitcoin, you should really be comparing to the daily NAV, not .1 of bitcoin.  Which is here, click the market performance tab - $23.35:  http://grayscale.co/bitcoin-investment-trust/  (It seems like the NAV on the old bitcointrust.co is no longer current, the Grayscale site is referred to in the OTC filings as the current official source).

Nimble compared to COIN.  That was the context of the discussion.

And I think you are misconstruing that quote. 

First, it doesn't say "minimum holding period" of 6 months.  It say they planned to open up "secondary markets" for trading six months after launch.   

Second, secondary markets does not mean "open" market, which I'm assuming you take as equal to a "public" market.  Long before bitcoin, Second Market got its start serving as a way for people to trade non-public securities.  I.e. owners of Facebook stock before it went public, that were acquired either in VC rounds or via employee grants.  It required purchasers to be accredited investors, and thus the transactions were exempt from requiring an SEC approved registration statement.

Technically, its not the ETF that does that, it is the authorized participants.  If the price is above NAV, they will buy baskets of new shares from the ETF and sell them, hence more supply and the price should fall.  If below NAV, they will buy shares below NAV and redeem baskets which reduces supply.

GBTC has that mechanism.  However, currently only shares that have been outstanding for a year may be sold on OTC.  So in practice, it doesn't work.  They are saying they will pursue full SEC registration, at which point, it could.

I give Barry credit for being nimble and "hacking" something that is publicly tradeable first, even if it currently has limitations.

Not necessarily.  Both entities use trusts.  GBTC has the same method of issuing / redeeming shares via baskets and authorized participants as COIN.  It just doesn't work now because of the one year holding period.  If they can get SEC registered, that problem goes away.  And COIN has not yet disclosed what its fees are, at least on the latest S-1A.

So the end game could be the same, but in the meantime, Barry managed to hack together a solution that at least gets something trading.

There are two general types.  One a 401k or simple IRA, allows you to invest a certain amount of income, and that investment is not considered earnings or otherwise taxed (meaning you can invest more upfront).  The investment then grows without taxes, capital gains or dividends.  When you reach the qualifying age and withdraw the money, it is taxed as ordinary income.  But, ideally you are in a lower tax bracket as you are retired.

Roth IRAs let you invest after tax income, but then distributions are not taxed.

Lots of other details.

In the short term, since it was easier to get the BIT into a tax deferred retirement account, the fees are probably worth it.

Long term, if bitcoin takes off, there will no doubt be competition, and COIN / other investment vehicles will pop up with lower fees.  And since it is in a tax-deferred account, David will be able to roll into one of those investments without taking a capital gain hit.

I didn't know it was so cumbersome.  I've rarely seen accredited investor processes needing proof of accredited status (you just make the representation), and I've never seen one requiring medallion signature guarantees.  

But, those were VC / "friend and family" type investments, so less "public" than BIT.  So, maybe they need to be more careful.

Still, you'd think it would be more streamlined if you have already purchased from them.  Have you checked they'd make you go through the whole process again?

New volume record, $300k traded at $50+.

I thought price would continue to drop as BIT holders began to fear missing out on the arbitrage opportunity.

Nice chunk of the 65s taken out:  http://quotes.freerealtime.com/dl/frt/M?IM=quotes&type=Time%26Sales&SA=quotes&symbol=GBTC&qm_page=93229

Creating a shell public company that has freely tradeable shares in the US is not easy.  They are known as "blank check" companies and use to be the source of lots of scams.

There is a current version known as a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company), but there are many restraints on what they can do, and you still have to generally describe the type of investment you're going to pursue.  If you said you were going to acquire bitcoin, you'd get stuck in the same quagmire as COIN.

I don't recall a maturation period for redemptions, but I may have missed it.  From this copy of an earlier factsheet, it seems the early redemptions just had an additional 1.5% fee, although it also notes redemptions were on a "limited basis."

*Redemption of shares will be allowed on a limited basis
as of April 2014 with expectation of qualifying for public
trading of the shares via the OTCQX® under the Alternative
Reporting Standards. Please note that an early redemption
fee of 1.5% will apply if shares are redeemed within a year
of purchase.:

http://bitcointrust.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Fact-Sheet_Mar15.pdf

From the latest filing, they appear to be trying to resume redemptions.  I don't know enough about Reg M to assess whether they are likely to be successful. 

On September 23, 2014, the Distributor received a letter from the staff of the SEC’s Office of
Compliance Inspections and Examinations summarizing the staff’s findings from an onsite review
of the Distributor’s broker-dealer activities conducted in June 2014. Among other things, the staff
stated that it had concluded that the Trust’s redemption program appears to violate Regulation M
under the Securities Exchange Act because redemptions of Shares take place at the same time the
Trust is in the process of creating Shares. The Distributor and the Trust are in discussions with the
staff of the SEC in order to resolve the staff’s concerns, although the Distributor and the Trust
cannot at this time predict the impact such a resolution may have on their respective activities. S

They could sell on OTC and buy again directly from Secondmarket as accredited investors.  Only thing they would lose is the ability to sell on OTC for another year.  Even that is not so bad, since presumably Secondmarket will unsuspend redemptions at some point.

From looking at your form, there is an expedited option that, so a motivated seller could be ready to trade much sooner than 5 days.

Also, I am wondering if your situation is a little more complicated as you are dealing with an IRA.  Someone holding directly and transferring to a broker may be able to do things quicker.