PIRATE BUSTED: Bullish or Bearish?

[fcmatt]

victims of the ponzi (and I use victims loosely as they should be called something else) are not going to see a dime from this.
they will just get the satisfaction that pirate's life is going to be turned upside down.
indifferent.

[pera]

I dont know... 60m dollars, the SEC now have a lot of power: they could give it to the FBI to track down dealers/buyers in SR, or just drop the price selling everything and kill the economy

[MAbtc]

Well, they released this: http://www.sec.gov/investor/alerts/ia_virtualcurrencies.pdf , not sure i'd count this as a seal of approval.  Guilt by association.

This. We'll see how it plays out. Don't think it means much, really, though.

[Hyena]

How did they manage to bust pirate40 ?

[dopamine]

Im waiting for the rest of scammers to go under look at my sig

[samson]

Its too soon to say. IT all depends on what the headlines are: "Bitcoin ponzi scheme revealed" (negative), "SEC begins policing bitcoin" (positive), "Bitcoin 'Madoff' caught by SEC" (semi-neutral).

I'm pretty sure the headline is going to be 'Bitoin Ponzi Scheme' and the followup will contain a long list of things like drugs, silk road, illegal porn and it will probably mention the Liberty Reserve bust.

[Spaceman_Spiff]

It also reinforces the association by the public: Bitcoin that's a ponzi - now confirmed by the SEC.

They didn't make that assertion, on the contrary they make it clear this was a specific entity operating on top of bitcoin.. just like madoff. They could have made that release sound much worse then they did.. instead they made it seem like they are going to be policing btc fraud.. which from a utility point of view is a huge value add..

Well, they released this: http://www.sec.gov/investor/alerts/ia_virtualcurrencies.pdf , not sure i'd count this as a seal of approval.  Guilt by association.

For now, it seems to me that they are just doing their jobs decently.  Press release was neutral to bitcoin, and the alert for Ponzi schemes involving bitcoin, well, they have a point don't they?

[crumbs]

It also reinforces the association by the public: Bitcoin that's a ponzi - now confirmed by the SEC.

They didn't make that assertion, on the contrary they make it clear this was a specific entity operating on top of bitcoin.. just like madoff. They could have made that release sound much worse then they did.. instead they made it seem like they are going to be policing btc fraud.. which from a utility point of view is a huge value add..

Well, they released this: http://www.sec.gov/investor/alerts/ia_virtualcurrencies.pdf , not sure i'd count this as a seal of approval.  Guilt by association.

For now, it seems to me that they are just doing their jobs decently.  Press release was neutral to bitcoin, and the alert for Ponzi schemes involving bitcoin, well, they have a point don't they?

I think so...  Just don't know how the-bitcoiners-that-matter will read it.  Tough crowd here, i doubt there's anything FinCEN can do, other than stay away, for everyone to be happy.  The correct answer according to Gox price seems to be "meh."  I'd be a bit worried if i was involved with local "stocks" & PMBs, but even before that PR that stuff was 

[BitPirate]

It also reinforces the association by the public: Bitcoin that's a ponzi - now confirmed by the SEC.

You're getting worse.

[Coinseeker]

I just read the CNN version of the bust and it didn't read negatively toward Bitcoin at all.  In fact, it basically justified Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as legitimate and warned people to beware of such scams when dealing with virtual currencies.  I think it's a real stretch to call this "bullish" news but I don't see any need for anyone to panic either. 

[bitcon]

if the investors get their btc back, it might be bearish if they cash out.  if Trendon had an encrypted or hidden wallet, or the BTC are unrecoverable, then having 700,000 BTC vanish / locked out of the blockchain would be a bullish thing.

[byronbb]

How did they manage to bust a half-wit con man ?

??

[Birdy]

if the investors get their btc back, it might be bearish if they cash out.  if Trendon had an encrypted or hidden wallet, or the BTC are unrecoverable, then having 700,000 BTC vanish / locked out of the blockchain would be a bullish thing.

It's not 700,000 BTC, nearly all of that had been paid out earlier in the scheme, lost in daytrading or sold for cash already.

-> this amount will not be locked out the blockchain
-> people won't get it back

[Cyberdyne]

if the investors get their btc back, it might be bearish if they cash out.  if Trendon had an encrypted or hidden wallet, or the BTC are unrecoverable, then having 700,000 BTC vanish / locked out of the blockchain would be a bullish thing.

It's not 700,000 BTC, nearly all of that had been paid out earlier in the scheme, lost in daytrading or sold for cash already.

-> this amount will not be locked out the blockchain
-> people won't get it back

The benefitters of his scheme were obviously all those day-traders that were on the other side of his losing trades. The money then is long gone.

[ArticMine]

Whether this is bullish or bearish in the short term depends on how much BTC are left. I suspect well under 100K BTC. Still we must keep in mind there may be creditors here such as the IRS who would likely sell BTC to cover unpaid withholding taxes for example. Short term somewhat bearish. Long term bullish.

[Kluge]

Pointless and without teeth. Mostly indifferent.

Short-term bullish, long-term bearish, but not much - I guess. Potentials will be lost by being turned off to BTC as a ponzi scheme, but having it mentioned is always good while BTC isn't mainstream. SEC "involvement," though, I don't think many will take seriously, as there isn't any serious effort being displayed by the SEC.

"We found a guy who people reported stole money, and we believe them. We think he's bad. We charged this guy who may or may not still be in the US, but we think he was a Texan. Please don't start or invest in ponzis. We're still an effective LEO bureaucracy, because even if no results come of this, we've made a statement condemning bad actions."

Lemme know when they have him in captivity, because right now, this comes off to me as an indication of powerlessness by the SEC.

[GeniuSxBoY]

What ever happened to that Bruce Wagner motherfucker? Did karma get him yet?

[jaakkop]

I don't think it matters if the coins come back or not. It's bullish in the sense that the SEC saw fit to get involved. If this was a WoW gold ponzi, the chances of that happening are highly unlikely, despite the fact that they are traded for dollars on the secondary market. This will work as an indirect endorsement for bitcoin legitimacy.

My thoughts exactly
Getting back those coins would be interesting to see... Brainwallets and plausible deniability ftw

[mp420]

Those who benefited most from the ponzi were Pirates co-conspirators (or early investors, depending on your viewpoint) who got out of the scheme before it collapsed.

It is not entirely unbelievable that the authorities will want to go after the early investors and passthrough services. Even if they believed in the scheme it constitutes criminal negligence to actually act on such frivolous beliefs, propagating the scheme.

None of this matters much, as far as the BTC market is considered.

[crumbs]

This news has much more to do with HYIPs/PONZIs than it does with BTC.

Earlier this year, a long-running and extremely popular HYIP called Profitable Sunrise ...

The name is pure win & kittens!