BTC-E.com will be back

[kelvinhsu]

I am very sad.$250000

[marky89]

I don't know if they come back, but this incident with the crap MS paint job is bullshit.

Gut feeling says they will return.

I've seen similar designs on torrent site takedown notices in years past. Maybe it's designed by the Shadowserver guys (the sinkhole where BTC-E is now pointing to), as opposed to some other takedown notices you might see. It does look a lot less professional than the Pokerstars/Full Tilt takedown. I remember those looked legit.

If they returned and I got even a chunk of my funds back, I would be ecstatic. It would be life-changing. But I doubt it.

[bensam1231]

Easy, because if you hadn't got the funds on it, you couldn't place the order.

And if you would exchange in crypto currency, well, very simple, then you are exchanging crypto currency that (in this moment) have nothing to do with fiat, f. ex. you are exchanging an apple for an egg.

Exchange fiat <-> crypto only possibly if there is fiat in the system. The exchange is not converting your coins into fiat but displaying buy/sell orders from people. How do you buy fiat by selling bitcoin on an exchange if there is no fiat sell order?

And also, you cannot "cash out" USD in EUR, you have to exchange it the same way. Nobody wants to sell EUR, e.g. no EUR sell order, then you cannot buy EUR with your USDs.

(Edited a lot, to fix buy/sell mistypes) 

Pretty sure you don't know how banks and exchanges work. It's a number, the only time they're required to have actual FIAT is when you make a withdrawl to a bank account. Banks for instance can spend your money (that's half the reason it's profitable) and since the bank runs are required to have a certain amount of currency on hand at all times. You can have a number in a bank and absolutely no cash associated with it.

Pretty sure I also specified an exchange... but you know if you want to think I meant removing USD Euros I guess...

As far as the exchange is concerned it only needs real 'FIAT' when it's transferred out to a bank account. Lets say I buy BTC in USD and then decide I want to cashout in Euros, how do you think that works? It would be a net loss to your 'zero sum' system. How they actually get real FIAT could be a combination of different things including exchanging BTC on other exchanges for FIAT.

Same could be said about me transferring BTC into BTCe and then pulling it out in USD. There is no way exchanges could function if their rates were based purely on how much FIAT they have on hand. People don't need to buy BTC with FIAT in order to use an exchange.

Why do you think Coinbase takes so long for withdrawls sometimes? They don't have a fort knox of gold on hand... or in our case USD.

Well, it's generally expected that the exchange is supposed to be solvent, that is, every Dollar or Euro or Bitcoin in a customer account should be backed by the exchange. Sure, when I sell to dollars, I often don't want to withdraw to a bank account... but many do. BTC-E could try to pull a Poloniex/Bitfinex move and essentially not have fiat banking, and just offer USD-Tether markets. But now that it's clear that the feds intend to shut them down (not just take a $110mm fine and let them operate with new AML procedures), it just doesn't make sense. I really hate to say it, but what makes the most sense for the owners is to simply disappear....

Nah... No it's not. That's just something that makes you feel good inside. Even banks in real life only do that up to a certain extent.

And yup, as I mentioned earlier that's pretty much what they already did... It's just USD/Euro were MARKETS and not actual gold knox backed FIAT. You can call Crypto markets USD and Euro, it doesn't mean there is a real dollar or euro there. It's all numbers.

I know this is a 'mind blown' sorta deal, but your money in real life works the same way.



Like I mentioned if they're actually rather shady and this is legal action - they'll be back as they're very professional. If this was legal action and they're complying it's probably all getting seized, not that we should have our assets seized.

Look at it this way. The feds seized a bank. When have you ever heard of a bank getting seized in real life because one of the owners was being fraudulent? You can't. Because you're essentially taking someone elses money. Even if some of it was dirty, there are plenty of people (myself included) with clean money on the exchange. Kinda the shitty part of living in the wild west of cryptos. Government (who knows almost nothing a about crypto) can essentially have a LEGAL bank heist and then not give two shits about whose money they're taking.

This sorta thing wouldn't fly if it was a physical location locals have their money at.

So if this is legal and the owner was doing something illegal, I agree with what they're doing. But since they're essentially just stealing from plenty of legitimate and completely ordinary people I really fucking hope BTCE comes back.

[YesLOST]

Easy, because if you hadn't got the funds on it, you couldn't place the order.

And if you would exchange in crypto currency, well, very simple, then you are exchanging crypto currency that (in this moment) have nothing to do with fiat, f. ex. you are exchanging an apple for an egg.

Exchange fiat <-> crypto only possibly if there is fiat in the system. The exchange is not converting your coins into fiat but displaying buy/sell orders from people. How do you buy fiat by selling bitcoin on an exchange if there is no fiat sell order?

And also, you cannot "cash out" USD in EUR, you have to exchange it the same way. Nobody wants to sell EUR, e.g. no EUR sell order, then you cannot buy EUR with your USDs.

(Edited a lot, to fix buy/sell mistypes)  

Pretty sure you don't know how banks and exchanges work. It's a number, the only time they're required to have actual FIAT is when you make a withdrawl to a bank account. Banks for instance can spend your money (that's half the reason it's profitable) and since the bank runs are required to have a certain amount of currency on hand at all times. You can have a number in a bank and absolutely no cash associated with it.

Pretty sure I also specified an exchange... but you know if you want to think I meant removing USD Euros I guess...

I know this is a 'mind blown' sorta deal, but your money in real life works the same way.

It is quite obvious you don't understand how exchanges work.  You are mixing up banks with exchanges as well, it is not the same.

But yes, probably some shady exchange would use the fiat which is deposited for something else than actually holding which they are obligated to.

However, for a fiat <-> crypto trade to happen, there absolutely must be fiat deposited to the system. It cannot be just created, or well, it could, but this is would be a clear fraud by the exchange then and we are talking about legit business, right.

You cannot sell your crypto coins into fiat if there is nobody wanting to sell their fiat. And how do they sell their fiat? Either they deposited and created an order or they sold their coins to another guy who deposited fiat before and created a fiat sell order, and so on.

Maybe it is easier for you to understand if you look at how stocks are bought and sold (regularly, not talking about margin trading).

[bensam1231]

Easy, because if you hadn't got the funds on it, you couldn't place the order.

And if you would exchange in crypto currency, well, very simple, then you are exchanging crypto currency that (in this moment) have nothing to do with fiat, f. ex. you are exchanging an apple for an egg.

Exchange fiat <-> crypto only possibly if there is fiat in the system. The exchange is not converting your coins into fiat but displaying buy/sell orders from people. How do you buy fiat by selling bitcoin on an exchange if there is no fiat sell order?

And also, you cannot "cash out" USD in EUR, you have to exchange it the same way. Nobody wants to sell EUR, e.g. no EUR sell order, then you cannot buy EUR with your USDs.

(Edited a lot, to fix buy/sell mistypes)  

Pretty sure you don't know how banks and exchanges work. It's a number, the only time they're required to have actual FIAT is when you make a withdrawl to a bank account. Banks for instance can spend your money (that's half the reason it's profitable) and since the bank runs are required to have a certain amount of currency on hand at all times. You can have a number in a bank and absolutely no cash associated with it.

Pretty sure I also specified an exchange... but you know if you want to think I meant removing USD Euros I guess...

I know this is a 'mind blown' sorta deal, but your money in real life works the same way.

It is quite obvious you don't understand how exchanges work.  You are mixing up banks with exchanges as well, it is not the same.

But yes, probably some shady exchange would use the fiat which is deposited for something else than actually holding which they are obligated to.

However, for a fiat <-> crypto trade to happen, there absolutely must be fiat deposited to the system. It cannot be just created, or well, it could, but this is would be a clear fraud by the exchange then and we are talking about legit business, right.

You cannot sell your crypto coins into fiat if there is nobody wanting to sell their fiat. And how do they sell their fiat? Either they deposited and created an order or they sold their coins to another guy who deposited fiat before and created a fiat sell order, and so on.

Maybe it is easier for you to understand if you look at how stocks are bought and sold (regularly, not talking about margin trading).

I'm not mixing banks with exchanges. I'm pointing out that they're similar to banks and 'seizing' an exchange is basically very similar to seizing a bank. Most people don't think about a place they store money at as an 'exchange'. But in the case with BTCe it was very much that way due to the ability to move between FIAT and BTC very easily.

They aren't obligated to 'hold' FIAT. Just like banks in real life are only required to have only so much cash on hand... or do you think they just keep all the money deposited there in a vault?

If you do think they're 'obligated' to hold it, point me to a source that requires them to do just that.

Yes... yes it could... or be deposited there at some point... transferred there (such as with BTC)... have assets to back it up... or otherwise have something 'show' for it. And no, they aren't required to have FIAT specifically for you to trade TO FIAT, only when you MOVE FIAT out of the system. And that for instance they could make up for simply by transferring BTC to another exchange and receiving money to an account or waiting for more FIAT to be deposited to the exchange.

You can finger point all you want, but pretty sure you guys have no idea how this sorta thing works. It's not zero sum. There are plenty of ways of creating 'virtual' FIAT other then JUST having someone deposit it there. Like the amount of BTC you can sell on BTCe (or other exchanges) isn't limited to the amount of FIAT they have on hand... it only is when it's removed from the system and you can already see examples where they're short (such as with Cryptsy before they folded and Coinbase on busy weeks when it takes 7+ days to get your deposit).

[YesLOST]

Easy, because if you hadn't got the funds on it, you couldn't place the order.

And if you would exchange in crypto currency, well, very simple, then you are exchanging crypto currency that (in this moment) have nothing to do with fiat, f. ex. you are exchanging an apple for an egg.

Exchange fiat <-> crypto only possibly if there is fiat in the system. The exchange is not converting your coins into fiat but displaying buy/sell orders from people. How do you buy fiat by selling bitcoin on an exchange if there is no fiat sell order?

And also, you cannot "cash out" USD in EUR, you have to exchange it the same way. Nobody wants to sell EUR, e.g. no EUR sell order, then you cannot buy EUR with your USDs.

(Edited a lot, to fix buy/sell mistypes)  

Pretty sure you don't know how banks and exchanges work. It's a number, the only time they're required to have actual FIAT is when you make a withdrawl to a bank account. Banks for instance can spend your money (that's half the reason it's profitable) and since the bank runs are required to have a certain amount of currency on hand at all times. You can have a number in a bank and absolutely no cash associated with it.

Pretty sure I also specified an exchange... but you know if you want to think I meant removing USD Euros I guess...

I know this is a 'mind blown' sorta deal, but your money in real life works the same way.

It is quite obvious you don't understand how exchanges work.  You are mixing up banks with exchanges as well, it is not the same.

But yes, probably some shady exchange would use the fiat which is deposited for something else than actually holding which they are obligated to.

However, for a fiat <-> crypto trade to happen, there absolutely must be fiat deposited to the system. It cannot be just created, or well, it could, but this is would be a clear fraud by the exchange then and we are talking about legit business, right.

You cannot sell your crypto coins into fiat if there is nobody wanting to sell their fiat. And how do they sell their fiat? Either they deposited and created an order or they sold their coins to another guy who deposited fiat before and created a fiat sell order, and so on.

Maybe it is easier for you to understand if you look at how stocks are bought and sold (regularly, not talking about margin trading).

I'm not mixing banks with exchanges. I'm pointing out that they're similar to banks and 'seizing' an exchange is basically very similar to seizing a bank. Most people don't think about a place they store money at as an 'exchange'. But in the case with BTCe it was very much that way due to the ability to move between FIAT and BTC very easily.

They aren't obligated to 'hold' FIAT. Just like banks in real life are only required to have only so much cash on hand... or do you think they just keep all the money deposited there in a vault?

If you do think they're 'obligated' to hold it, point me to a source that requires them to do just that.

Yes... yes it could... or be deposited there at some point... transferred there (such as with BTC)... have assets to back it up... or otherwise have something 'show' for it. And no, they aren't required to have FIAT specifically for you to trade TO FIAT, only when you MOVE FIAT out of the system. And that for instance they could make up for simply by transferring BTC to another exchange and receiving money to an account or waiting for more FIAT to be deposited to the exchange.

You can finger point all you want, but pretty sure you guys have no idea how this sorta thing works. It's not zero sum. There are plenty of ways of creating 'virtual' FIAT other then JUST having someone deposit it there. Like the amount of BTC you can sell on BTCe (or other exchanges) isn't limited to the amount of FIAT they have on hand... it only is when it's removed from the system and you can already see examples where they're short (such as with Cryptsy before they folded and Coinbase on busy weeks when it takes 7+ days to get your deposit).

You don't follow your thoughts to the end. Yes, of course they don't have the equivalent amount of fiat for bitcoins in their bank accounts but if you trade for fiat, they had the exact amount of fiat in their bank accounts because someone deposited it. There will be never be virtual fiat because people like you and me creating the sell and buy orders of fiat. No sell order for fiat, then you cannot buy fiat.

Example of obligation: https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/ia-2176.htm

The qualified custodian must hold the funds or securities in an account either under the client's name or under the adviser's name as agent or trustee for its clients

[bensam1231]

Easy, because if you hadn't got the funds on it, you couldn't place the order.

And if you would exchange in crypto currency, well, very simple, then you are exchanging crypto currency that (in this moment) have nothing to do with fiat, f. ex. you are exchanging an apple for an egg.

Exchange fiat <-> crypto only possibly if there is fiat in the system. The exchange is not converting your coins into fiat but displaying buy/sell orders from people. How do you buy fiat by selling bitcoin on an exchange if there is no fiat sell order?

And also, you cannot "cash out" USD in EUR, you have to exchange it the same way. Nobody wants to sell EUR, e.g. no EUR sell order, then you cannot buy EUR with your USDs.

(Edited a lot, to fix buy/sell mistypes)  

Pretty sure you don't know how banks and exchanges work. It's a number, the only time they're required to have actual FIAT is when you make a withdrawl to a bank account. Banks for instance can spend your money (that's half the reason it's profitable) and since the bank runs are required to have a certain amount of currency on hand at all times. You can have a number in a bank and absolutely no cash associated with it.

Pretty sure I also specified an exchange... but you know if you want to think I meant removing USD Euros I guess...

I know this is a 'mind blown' sorta deal, but your money in real life works the same way.

It is quite obvious you don't understand how exchanges work.  You are mixing up banks with exchanges as well, it is not the same.

But yes, probably some shady exchange would use the fiat which is deposited for something else than actually holding which they are obligated to.

However, for a fiat <-> crypto trade to happen, there absolutely must be fiat deposited to the system. It cannot be just created, or well, it could, but this is would be a clear fraud by the exchange then and we are talking about legit business, right.

You cannot sell your crypto coins into fiat if there is nobody wanting to sell their fiat. And how do they sell their fiat? Either they deposited and created an order or they sold their coins to another guy who deposited fiat before and created a fiat sell order, and so on.

Maybe it is easier for you to understand if you look at how stocks are bought and sold (regularly, not talking about margin trading).

I'm not mixing banks with exchanges. I'm pointing out that they're similar to banks and 'seizing' an exchange is basically very similar to seizing a bank. Most people don't think about a place they store money at as an 'exchange'. But in the case with BTCe it was very much that way due to the ability to move between FIAT and BTC very easily.

They aren't obligated to 'hold' FIAT. Just like banks in real life are only required to have only so much cash on hand... or do you think they just keep all the money deposited there in a vault?

If you do think they're 'obligated' to hold it, point me to a source that requires them to do just that.

Yes... yes it could... or be deposited there at some point... transferred there (such as with BTC)... have assets to back it up... or otherwise have something 'show' for it. And no, they aren't required to have FIAT specifically for you to trade TO FIAT, only when you MOVE FIAT out of the system. And that for instance they could make up for simply by transferring BTC to another exchange and receiving money to an account or waiting for more FIAT to be deposited to the exchange.

You can finger point all you want, but pretty sure you guys have no idea how this sorta thing works. It's not zero sum. There are plenty of ways of creating 'virtual' FIAT other then JUST having someone deposit it there. Like the amount of BTC you can sell on BTCe (or other exchanges) isn't limited to the amount of FIAT they have on hand... it only is when it's removed from the system and you can already see examples where they're short (such as with Cryptsy before they folded and Coinbase on busy weeks when it takes 7+ days to get your deposit).

You don't follow your thoughts to the end. Yes, of course they don't have the equivalent amount of fiat for bitcoins in their bank accounts but if you trade for fiat, they had the exact amount of fiat in their bank accounts because someone deposited it. There will be never be virtual fiat because people like you and me creating the sell and buy orders of fiat. No sell order for fiat, then you cannot buy fiat.

Example of obligation: https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/ia-2176.htm

The qualified custodian must hold the funds or securities in an account either under the client's name or under the adviser's name as agent or trustee for its clients

Annnnd you're talking about BTCe which was seized for fraud?

Now lets go back to my first post you responded to which you conveniently clipped from this tree.

Wasn't that what they were already doing? USD/EUR exchange was always just on their site. Most people didn't even try to get USD out of the site as there are a lot of hoops you have to jump through in order to do it. For instance I used the exchange because of the very cheap USD/BTC exchange rate and go back to BTC > send to Coinbase when I want to make a deposit in my bank account.

As long as exchanges don't offer a USD exchange it really doesn't matter... and as far as that goes BTCe's didn't really get used. It was just a good place to sit in FIAT when BTC is fluctuating a lot.

I used BTC-e for over 4 years without a problem, never move any fiat in or out, too hard and expensive, most of my funds came from mining crypto and trading.  I would be surprised if much fiat ever moved in or out the that exchange, I think the media claims are BS, they are probably counting ancient BTC movements and inflating them to today's exchange rates to make sensationalist headlines which sound like $US was moving in and out. The news stories seem to be deliberately trying to interchange BTC and $USD in their claims because the average sheeple wont see the sleight of hand.

When Mt. Gox funds went "missing" you can bet some ended up on BTC-e, after all, what other crypto exchanges were there 5 years ago? Find me a bank or exchange that hasn't had illegally obtained funds deposited at some point. Need I mention places which take cash!

Yup... Pretty sure almost all of the volume was between their internal FIAT and BTC/LTC/ETC. IE if the FIAT never leaves the exchange it never is actually 'USD'. So you can have an exchange with another virtual currency which is FIAT, which was the case with BTCe.

Moving USD out of BTCe was a huge PITA, which is why I doubt it was never actually done or very rarely.

But if there is no way for USD or EUR to exit the exchange, why will people want to hold it? That's the problem. The only option, then, is to cut the EUR markets and transition the USD markets to USDT. Maybe that's possible, but I'm not sure Bitfinex's parent company (who owns Tether) will want to deal with backing BTC-E at this point.

It's independent from market fluctuations. You can have a FIAT which is essentially just another crypto.

I 'held' FIAT on BTCe because of low rates to buy/sell (like .15%) and because it was generally a time proven exchange. I never moved USD off the exchange, only BTC.

Trading BTC/USD on Coinbase to your wallet is insanely expensive, it's like the same price as exchange to your bank account.

You know how an exchange works, yes? For every buy order, there is fiat in the system. It is not some "internal" fiat, it is real money somebody put in the exchange.

At what point did I say that a normal exchange doesn't have assets to trade back? I said the only time that FIAT only counts as FIAT is when it leaves the system, meaning the FIAT that was originally deposited whatever form that might be could now otherwise be gold bullion somewhere in a neo nazi bunker. For all intents and purposes, it really doesn't matter. I never saw FIAT out of BTCe nor did a lot of other people. It may not even exist in the first place and still doesn't matter once again unless people try to move it out of the system. That's how Mt Gox survived so long in the negative... And Cryptsy.

[kelvinhsu]

I told us btc-e would be back again

[exstasie]

Stop hoping for this exchange to come back. The owner itself is on the jail and crying. This must give a lesson for all traders that don't let your coins stay on an exchange. All exchange has a chance to collapse even though how trusted they are right now

I'd agree that we shouldn't get our hopes up too much. Collapsing businesses/services often give these kind of updates before eventually disappearing. It also wasn't the most encouraging update (purses seized, next update to detail how much was lost).

But everything points to Vinnik not being an owner or even significant admin.

[kelvinhsu]

BTC-E.com will be back

[Taki]

Well, they are promissing it is going to be so, but who knows what is going to be in real. Of course I hope for positive end, even if I wasn't a participant on the exchanger 

[Kemarit]

It was later confirmed that the so called unscheduled maintenance was due to the authorities (FBI) going into their data center and gathering evidence about the coins deposited from Mt. Go to BTC-e. They said that they will resume by Aug. 6 but I doubt it will happened that quick. Also worth mentioning that they will return funds for its customers. But the question is how long will it take them to give back the funds to its users.

Stop hoping for this exchange to come back. The owner itself is on the jail and crying. This must give a lesson for all traders that don't let your coins stay on an exchange. All exchange has a chance to collapse even though how trusted they are right now

They already refuse to acknowledge or maintain any connection with Vinnik. Yes, this is really an eye opener who still believes that having your life savings in an exchange is safe. Like we always says here, if you don't have control of the private keys, its not your coin. Also the Mt. Gox incident should already thought us a lesson or two. I'm just sayin'.

[DLXS]

It was later confirmed that the so called unscheduled maintenance was due to the authorities (FBI) going into their data center and gathering evidence about the coins deposited from Mt. Go to BTC-e. They said that they will resume by Aug. 6 but I doubt it will happened that quick. Also worth mentioning that they will return funds for its customers. But the question is how long will it take them to give back the funds to its users.

Stop hoping for this exchange to come back. The owner itself is on the jail and crying. This must give a lesson for all traders that don't let your coins stay on an exchange. All exchange has a chance to collapse even though how trusted they are right now

They already refuse to acknowledge or maintain any connection with Vinnik. Yes, this is really an eye opener who still believes that having your life savings in an exchange is safe. Like we always says here, if you don't have control of the private keys, its not your coin. Also the Mt. Gox incident should already thought us a lesson or two. I'm just sayin'.

Where can I read about this? What do I have to do?

Thanks

[YesLOST]

Stop hoping for this exchange to come back. The owner itself is on the jail and crying. This must give a lesson for all traders that don't let your coins stay on an exchange. All exchange has a chance to collapse even though how trusted they are right now

You are very delusional,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2056158.0

[1Referee]

But everything points to Vinnik not being an owner or even significant admin.

For obvious reasons, that's what they want the general public, and especially the US authorities to believe. It's the only possible way of having at least a slight possibility of returning. Important to not forget is that no matter how you look at it, BTC-E has been used to launder/store the stolen MtGox coins - this alone gives the authorities enough reason to prevent this exchange from relaunching in whatever form. And if that isn't enough, there are a few more serious cases they are connected to. In that regard, the hot wallet funds that are now in the hands of the authorities, will never be returned back to their original owners. The only hope of seeing anything back should be based on what's going to happen with BTC-E's cold wallet funds. These are still under control of whatever BTC-E entity.

[Teal Deer]

But everything points to Vinnik not being an owner or even significant admin.

For obvious reasons, that's what they want the general public, and especially the US authorities to believe. It's the only possible way of having at least a slight possibility of returning. Important to not forget is that no matter how you look at it, BTC-E has been used to launder/store the stolen MtGox coins - this alone gives the authorities enough reason to prevent this exchange from relaunching in whatever form. And if that isn't enough, there are a few more serious cases they are connected to. In that regard, the hot wallet funds that are now in the hands of the authorities, will never be returned back to their original owners. The only hope of seeing anything back should be based on what's going to happen with BTC-E's cold wallet funds. These are still under control of whatever BTC-E entity.

What percentage would they have kept in hot vs cold wallets, approximately, do you think?

[figmentofmyass]

But everything points to Vinnik not being an owner or even significant admin.

For obvious reasons, that's what they want the general public, and especially the US authorities to believe. It's the only possible way of having at least a slight possibility of returning. Important to not forget is that no matter how you look at it, BTC-E has been used to launder/store the stolen MtGox coins - this alone gives the authorities enough reason to prevent this exchange from relaunching in whatever form. And if that isn't enough, there are a few more serious cases they are connected to. In that regard, the hot wallet funds that are now in the hands of the authorities, will never be returned back to their original owners. The only hope of seeing anything back should be based on what's going to happen with BTC-E's cold wallet funds. These are still under control of whatever BTC-E entity.

i hope they still have control of the cold wallets, but how do you know? any movement we see on the blockchain could be the btc-e admins OR the feds. either way, this is a shit sandwich for all involved. i had a little dough there, waiting to buy back, i consider it lost. sucks.

[1Referee]

What percentage would they have kept in hot vs cold wallets, approximately, do you think?

It's very difficult to say, as there is no way we can look into how BTC-E structured their cold/hot coin ratios. In general, and that's more an estimate of how previously hacked exchanges have divided their different storage forms, it would be something in the range of 25% hot wallets, and 75% cold wallets. Ultimately, and that's the worst case scenario, the cold storage ratio should never be under the 50% level.

i hope they still have control of the cold wallets, but how do you know? any movement we see on the blockchain could be the btc-e admins OR the feds. either way, this is a shit sandwich for all involved. i had a little dough there, waiting to buy back, i consider it lost. sucks.

It's impossible to know for sure, but the good thing is that there is no clear indication of where BTC-E is located. And even if that was the case, the funds BTC-E has locked into cold storage could be sitting in a whole different location. I am a victim as well; +$10,000 in fiat, and +5BTC is very likely never going to be seen again by me.

[bitjoin]

But everything points to Vinnik not being an owner or even significant admin.

For obvious reasons, that's what they want the general public, and especially the US authorities to believe. It's the only possible way of having at least a slight possibility of returning. Important to not forget is that no matter how you look at it, BTC-E has been used to launder/store the stolen MtGox coins - this alone gives the authorities enough reason to prevent this exchange from relaunching in whatever form. And if that isn't enough, there are a few more serious cases they are connected to. In that regard, the hot wallet funds that are now in the hands of the authorities, will never be returned back to their original owners. The only hope of seeing anything back should be based on what's going to happen with BTC-E's cold wallet funds. These are still under control of whatever BTC-E entity.

What percentage would they have kept in hot vs cold wallets, approximately, do you think?

Hot wallets should be a tiny fraction of total exchange net worth. One thing i noticed about BTC-e though was withdraws were always super quick like quicker than any other exchange.  So im guessing this means in general they kept a larger hot wallet.

[dakeyras]

I hope it does come back!
I have traded on there for years and got stung just like the rest of you.
Maybe they will keep their word and give us back even some of our coin!!