[2015-07-01] CT - BTCGreece Founder: Bitcoin Demand Has Risen by 400%

[tyz]

CoinTelegraph spoke with Thanos Marinos, the founder of Greece’s only Bitcoin exchange, about the current debt crisis and Bitcoin’s surge in popularity in Greece and across the EU.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/114714/btcgreece-founder-bitcoin-demand-has-risen

[RustyNomad]

As I said before, do not worry about mass adoption of bitcoin, governments will do all the necessary work to ensure it happens...

Yes, the demand in the last 4 weeks has risen by 400% and the number of newly registered customers by 600%.

Coinbase has said it has seen a 300% increase in people buying Bitcoin in Europe in the last few weeks

[jjacob]

It would have been nice if he had talked about actual numbers.
The original base of Bitcoin users could have been very small.

[tyz]

Agree! Even the Chinese central bank has started to do quantative easing now. Central banks are creating a perfect storm which will blow the fiat monetary system away. Just a question of time.

As I said before, do not worry about mass adoption of bitcoin, governments will do all the necessary work to ensure it happens...

Yes, the demand in the last 4 weeks has risen by 400% and the number of newly registered customers by 600%.

Coinbase has said it has seen a 300% increase in people buying Bitcoin in Europe in the last few weeks

[bryant.coleman]

Why this sudden surge? The Greek crisis has been ongoing for many months now, and there was no surge in demand for Bitcoins, either from the Greeks, or from the other Europeans. That said, I don't know whether this will be good for the Bitcoin sector or not. These people are likely to use Bitcoin as a medium to store their wealth. That means less people using Bitcoin for their shopping.

[gogxmagog]

It would have been nice if he had talked about actual numbers.
The original base of Bitcoin users could have been very small.

Exactly what I was thinking. I heard a quot here that there are only around a couple dozen exchanges operating out of Greece. How many users were there before the grexit? 200?
If we want to see crisis like this affect the BTC price to the moon we need to see bigger nations get hit.
Of course, it's only a matter of time.

[unamis76]

Are they sure it's all Greek users?

Anyways, this report seems more credible. I wouldn't be surprised if the price changes aren't only made by whales in the last few days...

[gentlemand]

So 4 customers instead of 1. Sweet.

Running a Greek exchange right now would make sense. You can transfer all the EUR you like inside Greece. You just can't send it abroad or get it out of the ATMs in decent amounts. There's a lot of money there looking for a way out. It's a shame it had to come to this.

[Chef Ramsay]

Why this sudden surge? The Greek crisis has been ongoing for many months now, and there was no surge in demand for Bitcoins, either from the Greeks, or from the other Europeans. That said, I don't know whether this will be good for the Bitcoin sector or not. These people are likely to use Bitcoin as a medium to store their wealth. That means less people using Bitcoin for their shopping.

I'm totally cool w/ storing coinage as being one of the major focal points of bitcoin going forward. It's not like people spend from their retirement accounts. Frankly, until businesses that accept bitcoin offer discounts for doing so, there's no need to pay with it just to give them the upper hand. When they do provide discounts for using it or only take it for said products, then the reoccurring demand to obtain coins will be a regular thing. This is the main issue I have w/ merchants these days outside of their immediate cashing in of their new coins.

[bryant.coleman]

Are they sure it's all Greek users?

Yes. The data comes from local Bitcoin exchanges in Greece, which does not have operations outside that country. The preliminary data seems to indicate that there is a huge surge occurring right now. That said, we need to verify this data with those from the international Bitcoin exchanges (such as BTC-e and Localbitcoins), which operate in Greece.