BTC-E now having largest daily trading volume

[FandangledGizmo]

Also Russia's biggest bank has come out in support of virtual currencies.

http://www.coindesk.com/ceo-russian-sberbank-endorses-virtual-currencies/

I also think this is a factor that also helps makes BTC-E one the most solid exchanges going forward.

[nobbynobbynoob]

Speaking as a regular user of the named "Russian mob" exchange, it also enjoys success because it's good. They were an early-adopting litecoin exchange, and also offer seamless fiat crosses (I've never attempted to deposit or draw fiat from them though, which sounds awkward at best).

[ilpirata79]

The fairly low flat 0.2% transaction fee also helps.

Definitely. With Gox charging 0.6%, that's massive when coins are costing so much. Great point.

Also the fact that they don't require you to declare your identity.

Best regards,
ilpirata79

[enric]

Right now the first exchange by trading volume is okcoin
http://btckan.com/price

[empoweoqwj]

I'm personally hoping Kraken can seriously catch up soon and start offering margin trading. Where did you get this info and how far back are Kraken?

Mark

kraken are great, but the fact they are based in the united states is keeping a lot of people away from them.

This may be a stupid question, but I'm kind of new. Why would people rather use BTC-e in some mystery part of Eastern Europe than Kraken in the US? I personally think BTC-e are great and actually use all available brokers, but I would have thought the influx of new people would have been attracted to Kraken by it's "shiny" interface and a perceived level of "trustworthiness". I have been wondering this for a while now.

Its only a mystery to you because you are in the US. Kraken would be a mystery to people in Eastern Europe. They have cash as well you know.

Why do you perceive Kraken as being trustworthy? How long have they been in operation?

[bryant.coleman]

Speaking as a regular user of the named "Russian mob" exchange, it also enjoys success because it's good. They were an early-adopting litecoin exchange, and also offer seamless fiat crosses (I've never attempted to deposit or draw fiat from them though, which sounds awkward at best).

It seems that a lot of Russian oligarchs who lost their money in Cyprus are now backing Bitcoin. And BTC-E is effectively run by these people, and since they have connections higher up, the users will not face much difficulties.

[coolbeans94]

They also just recently added a the PPC/USD trading pair for Peercoin, currently the 3rd largest crypto.

[skovbitcoin]

I'm personally hoping Kraken can seriously catch up soon and start offering margin trading. Where did you get this info and how far back are Kraken?

Mark

kraken are great, but the fact they are based in the united states is keeping a lot of people away from them.

This may be a stupid question, but I'm kind of new. Why would people rather use BTC-e in some mystery part of Eastern Europe than Kraken in the US? I personally think BTC-e are great and actually use all available brokers, but I would have thought the influx of new people would have been attracted to Kraken by it's "shiny" interface and a perceived level of "trustworthiness". I have been wondering this for a while now.

Its only a mystery to you because you are in the US. Kraken would be a mystery to people in Eastern Europe. They have cash as well you know.

Why do you perceive Kraken as being trustworthy? How long have they been in operation?

Actually I'm in the UK and as I said I personally have no problem using Kraken, BTC-e, Bitfinex and Mt Gox. I have my own opinions of those different exchanges, their ease of use, their accessibility and their trustworthiness...but I was not really stating my own opinions. Notice I was talking about people's "perceived level of trustworthiness", not necessarily my own. I was not being disparaging of people in Eastern Europe either, I have many relatives and friends in Eastern Europe. What I was saying was that I find it surprising that volume on Kraken has not picked up quicker because I believe that a lot of people new into Bitcoin would see Kraken as an attractive option. I'm aware that reputation is often the most selling point of a broker/exchange...I have been involved with FX trading for a long time and have seen the reputations of brokers rise and fall for various reasons. In my opinion you can't underestimate the draw of a "shiny" website and a even a hint of a base of operations in a large American city, London...or any of the traditional European financial cities such as Zurich or Stuttgart. It is only right that people weigh up an exchange's integrity and risk levels for themselves before they place their fiat or BTC in their accounts.

[empoweoqwj]

I'm personally hoping Kraken can seriously catch up soon and start offering margin trading. Where did you get this info and how far back are Kraken?

Mark

kraken are great, but the fact they are based in the united states is keeping a lot of people away from them.

This may be a stupid question, but I'm kind of new. Why would people rather use BTC-e in some mystery part of Eastern Europe than Kraken in the US? I personally think BTC-e are great and actually use all available brokers, but I would have thought the influx of new people would have been attracted to Kraken by it's "shiny" interface and a perceived level of "trustworthiness". I have been wondering this for a while now.

Its only a mystery to you because you are in the US. Kraken would be a mystery to people in Eastern Europe. They have cash as well you know.

Why do you perceive Kraken as being trustworthy? How long have they been in operation?

Actually I'm in the UK and as I said I personally have no problem using Kraken, BTC-e, Bitfinex and Mt Gox. I have my own opinions of those different exchanges, their ease of use, their accessibility and their trustworthiness...but I was not really stating my own opinions. Notice I was talking about people's "perceived level of trustworthiness", not necessarily my own. I was not being disparaging of people in Eastern Europe either, I have many relatives and friends in Eastern Europe. What I was saying was that I find it surprising that volume on Kraken has not picked up quicker because I believe that a lot of people new into Bitcoin would see Kraken as an attractive option. I'm aware that reputation is often the most selling point of a broker/exchange...I have been involved with FX trading for a long time and have seen the reputations of brokers rise and fall for various reasons. In my opinion you can't underestimate the draw of a "shiny" website and a even a hint of a base of operations in a large American city, London...or any of the traditional European financial cities such as Zurich or Stuttgart. It is only right that people weigh up an exchange's integrity and risk levels for themselves before they place their fiat or BTC in their accounts.

Appreciate the response. But it seems people value other things above a "shiny" website. Perhaps being based in the US is actually the problem?

[Stunna]

According to Bitcoinity, BTC-E has the smallest order book of any of the major exchanges, but a VERY long shot.

Is this Bitcoinity being inaccurate? Because I can't see how the depth at BTC-E can be so low with such high trading volume?

[frito]

I'm personally hoping Kraken can seriously catch up soon and start offering margin trading. Where did you get this info and how far back are Kraken?

Mark

kraken are great, but the fact they are based in the united states is keeping a lot of people away from them.

This may be a stupid question, but I'm kind of new. Why would people rather use BTC-e in some mystery part of Eastern Europe than Kraken in the US? I personally think BTC-e are great and actually use all available brokers, but I would have thought the influx of new people would have been attracted to Kraken by it's "shiny" interface and a perceived level of "trustworthiness". I have been wondering this for a while now.

u need to exchange all them BTC from Sheep market place somewhere.

volume of about 90k..about right

[empoweoqwj]

I'm personally hoping Kraken can seriously catch up soon and start offering margin trading. Where did you get this info and how far back are Kraken?

Mark

kraken are great, but the fact they are based in the united states is keeping a lot of people away from them.

This may be a stupid question, but I'm kind of new. Why would people rather use BTC-e in some mystery part of Eastern Europe than Kraken in the US? I personally think BTC-e are great and actually use all available brokers, but I would have thought the influx of new people would have been attracted to Kraken by it's "shiny" interface and a perceived level of "trustworthiness". I have been wondering this for a while now.

u need to exchange all them BTC from Sheep market place somewhere.

volume of about 90k..about right

u saying the owner of sheep marketplace (now defunct) is connected with btc-e - tell me more

[bryant.coleman]

u saying the owner of sheep marketplace (now defunct) is connected with btc-e - tell me more

The owner of Sheep was from the Czech Republic. All of the BTC-E owners are from Russia and Ukraine. There is hardly any chance of connections between them. It is not impossible though, as Czechoslovakia was a former member of the Warsaw pact. More than half of all the Czechs know Russian language as well. 

[frito]

u saying the owner of sheep marketplace (now defunct) is connected with btc-e - tell me more

The owner of Sheep was from the Czech Republic. All of the BTC-E owners are from Russia and Ukraine. There is hardly any chance of connections between them. It is not impossible though, as Czechoslovakia was a former member of the Warsaw pact. More than half of all the Czechs know Russian language as well. 

The sudden spike in Volume on btc-e is rather recent.

btw, the btc-e bank accounts for SEPA and int. transfers are all in the czech rep.

[Nagle]

I'm personally hoping Kraken can seriously catch up soon and start offering margin trading. Where did you get this info and how far back are Kraken?

Mark

Kraken is probably a scam. They claim to be in San Francisco, but have no street address and use the same low-end mailbox store Tradehill did.

Kraken HQ in Google Street View.
548 Market Street #39656
San Francisco, CA 94104-5401

[SaltySpitoon]

I have used BTC-E for quite a while now, due to privacy reasons. I've never had to confirm ID or anything else with them. I had 14 BTC stuck in my Gox account that I couldn't get out, as I wasn't allowed to send ID overseas. Not to mention, I didn't want to in the first place, so that was probably the largest selling feature for me. That and those that were around about a year and a half ago when BTC-E was hacked, they showed that their customer support is phenominal, someone was able to inject fake USD into the exchange through an exploitation of the Liberty Reserve deposit method, leading to $40,000 in stolen funds, which they paid immediately out of BTC-E's own pockets (This was $7-8 BTC at the time too, so not a small amount of coin). Not to mention that they have to be the most unlicensed exchange ever, but their location is keeping them safe from U.S enforcement. For some reason, I have always felt the safest with BTC-E despite them being able to walk off the face of the earth with extreme ease.

The cons however are the language barrier, there are often misunderstanding's with support due to the language barrier, but in my experience everything gets handled. You just have to be slightly more patient, and you may need to rexplain yourself.

[eldentyrell]

That's very impressive. Anyone know what has lead to the rise of btc-e?

They don't demand an identity-theft-enabling dossier from their customers, simple as that.

Might sound revolutionary, but not holding a gun to your customers' head is sort of a competitive advantage when everybody else is doing it.

[eldentyrell]

I'm personally hoping Kraken can seriously catch up soon and start offering margin trading. Where did you get this info and how far back are Kraken?

Mark

kraken are great, but the fact they are based in the united states is keeping a lot of people away from them.

Yep.  They just can't seem to come to terms with the fact that the regulatory atmosphere in the US is simply unworkable right now.  They seem to think if they wish really really really really hard it will all just work out okay.

Not gonna happen.  Find a new country or find a new business to run, guys.  The longer people like you keep trying to make it work, the longer it will take the regulators to figure out they're killing the goose.

I would have thought the influx of new people would have been attracted to Kraken by it's "shiny" interface

And this is exactly what's wrong with Silicon Valley right now (and has been for the last 5-6 years; I miss the old days).  Shiny interface is not a core competency or even an meaningful competitive advantage.  Only exception is cell phones since they're partly a fashion product (no, I am not kidding about this).

[skovbitcoin]

I'm personally hoping Kraken can seriously catch up soon and start offering margin trading. Where did you get this info and how far back are Kraken?

Mark

kraken are great, but the fact they are based in the united states is keeping a lot of people away from them.

Yep.  They just can't seem to come to terms with the fact that the regulatory atmosphere in the US is simply unworkable right now.  They seem to think if they wish really really really really hard it will all just work out okay.

Not gonna happen.  Find a new country or find a new business to run, guys.  The longer people like you keep trying to make it work, the longer it will take the regulators to figure out they're killing the goose.

I would have thought the influx of new people would have been attracted to Kraken by it's "shiny" interface

And this is exactly what's wrong with Silicon Valley right now (and has been for the last 5-6 years; I miss the old days).  Shiny interface is not a core competency or even an meaningful competitive advantage.  Only exception is cell phones since they're partly a fashion product (no, I am not kidding about this).

I concur completely, I am often dismayed by how easily "shininess" can sway the masses. I'm not saying it's anything but a bad thing...I'm just surprised and quite heartened by the fact this community seems to have not been so easily led. Though I have no doubt as the community grows, the idiots will come...and there will be more and more scams etc. associated with them.

My personal preference in a broker/exchange is PURE utility. Speed of execution, depth of market, absence of slippage to a reasonable extent etc....

[eldentyrell]

Though I have no doubt as the community grows, the idiots will come...and there will be more and more scams etc. associated with them.

I have some bad news for you: having scams "associated with" a financial institution is unavoidable, and perhaps even a sign of success in the legacy banking system.

My personal preference in a broker/exchange is PURE utility. Speed of execution, depth of market, absence of slippage to a reasonable extent etc....

As soon as you get your coins held for ransom you will figure out that there is something far more important than any of these concerns.