Mtgox keeping the lid on?

[lebing]

The spread difference between other exchanges is now exceeding 10% in some cases (cavirtex was 120 today when mtgox was 108) and similarly 3-4% lower than others consistently... when it used to be the other way around (mtgox was usually higher). It's clear that the reason for this is the lag time in verification processing that mtgox is having (I believe the queue is above 9000 people waiting now now). The question is, is this verification queue causing the price to remain artificially lower for a longer period of time? Because they have such a larger market share than the rest of the exchanges, could they realisitically create this artificially lower price rise on purpose to keep us from having another bubble/crash? Or will the other exchanges start leaving gox in the dust because of their lag?

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[mccorvic]

I don't have any evidence so the following is just speculation:

I think that MtGox being the oldest and largest of the exchanges has made it the prime target of bears and trading bots.  Both of these are what keeps the price artificially low and also allows the other exchanges to move more freely.

[adamstgBit]

[misterbigg]

A small buy or sell affects the order book much more on the smaller exchanges since they have liquidity. So it is not unusual that the price diverges from the most liquid order book on the planet.

[Stormalong]

Funny you should post this because I was pondering the exact same thing today. I was referring to it as 'throttling the bubble'. It seems likely to be having an effect. That is, if Mtgox suddenly was magically able to complete all the verifications in their backlog TODAY, presumably all those people would immediately try to buy bitcoins, which would REALLY cause the price to skyrocket.

I mean, assuming those people weren't waiting for verification to sell a bunch of bitcoin so they could cash out a bunch of fiat...

[lebing]

so much for keeping the lid on lol

[mb300sd]

Funny you should post this because I was pondering the exact same thing today. I was referring to it as 'throttling the bubble'. It seems likely to be having an effect. That is, if Mtgox suddenly was magically able to complete all the verifications in their backlog TODAY, presumably all those people would immediately try to buy bitcoins, which would REALLY cause the price to skyrocket.

I mean, assuming those people weren't waiting for verification to sell a bunch of bitcoin so they could cash out a bunch of fiat...

Theres no need to wait for verification to sell - you could deposit $1m in bitcoins and sell them all unverified right now, but you'd have to verify to get the fiat out. Shouldn't stop those who think the price is about to dip from selling now...

[byronbb]

I was thinking this very thought earlier tonight. Conclusion: buy all the coins you can with your already verified account with fiat loans and sell to anyone willing to pay at 5% mark up and repeat.

[eldentyrell]

(cavirtex was 120 today when mtgox was 108)

cavirtex HAS NO TRADING API.  Price discovery does not happen there.

[Zangelbert Bingledack]

Lid. Blown. Off.