Understanding the recent mini-crash/dump

[LeancyBTC]

Ever wonder what drives the Bitcoin economy besides those few groups or individuals who orchestrate pumps and dumps?

In recent events, Mt.Gox has starting locking users accounts due to the recent events that happened with ex-CEO Charlie Shrem of BitInstant; who was arrested on "alleged" charges of money laundering last week at JFK Airport in NYC.  Even though Gox is not directly connected to Shrem's indictment, the reason why Mt.Gox has placed this restriction on hundreds, if not thousands, of their members is because they want to save their bacons from any implications that may indict them as a "co-accomplice in BitInstant's money laundering scheme". Due to the defensive measures set up by Gox (they call this their validation process), a load of users were not able to withdraw their funds and hence it started to create a chain of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt... eventually leading to the mini-crash that just happened.. and may well still be happening.

Until Mt. Gox can get their service running up properly.. things will be unstable for a while. I would recommend anyone holding on to their Bitcoins to do nothing with them right now. Any more panic selling would surely cause the market to go down further.

My 2 cents.

[odolvlobo]

On the other hand, it could simply be a convenient excuse for not being able to fund withdrawals.

[googlemaster1]

There may be a much larger set of big players in the Arbitration Trading than we once realized also.  This may hurt the BTC value in the short term even further.  Got a big order in at $620

[MatTheCat]

Ever wonder what drives the Bitcoin economy besides those few groups or individuals who orchestrate pumps and dumps?

In recent events, Mt.Gox has starting locking users accounts due to the recent events that happened with ex-CEO Charlie Shrem of BitInstant; who was arrested on "alleged" charges of money laundering last week at JFK Airport in NYC.  Even though Gox is not directly connected to Shrem's indictment, the reason why Mt.Gox has placed this restriction on hundreds, if not thousands, of their members is because they want to save their bacons from any implications that may indict them as a "co-accomplice in BitInstant's money laundering scheme". Due to the defensive measures set up by Gox (they call this their validation process), a load of users were not able to withdraw their funds and hence it started to create a chain of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt... eventually leading to the mini-crash that just happened.. and may well still be happening.

Until Mt. Gox can get their service running up properly.. things will be unstable for a while. I would recommend anyone holding on to their Bitcoins to do nothing with them right now. Any more panic selling would surely cause the market to go down further.

My 2 cents.

Which is exactly what all that mindless flim flam was worth.

[dissident]

having been involved in the stock market for some time, I can say that this is just normal behavior for any stock and people love to speculate that there are 'manipulators orchestrating dumps' when reality is not quite so melodramatic. The bitcoin early adopters are holding a lot of coin and if any one of them decides they want to dump a significant quantity, it will affect the markets. The person who sells first locks in the profit and the rest jump in and chase the price down. Actually I'm surprised how well bitcoin has held up and how few of the early adopters have sold to be honest.

Plus the idea of an exchange going insolvent isn't helpful.... even if I've never really considered it to be a valid exchange... some have.