www.BITSTAMP.net Bitcoin exchange site for USD/BTC

[pro-trader]

After this experience with Bitstamp
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=38711.msg4444786#msg4444786
Bitstamp has confiscated 60.000 USD from me and refuses to return them [/red]
luckily resolved as described here
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=38711.msg4541617#msg4541617

I decided (as mentioned in between the lines) to sell all my Bitcoins beginning of the year. It took me quite a few days time as the only acceptable exchanger to me was the German bitcoin.de, where you have to deal with multiple counterparties directly at small volumes. And I had quite a number of BTC to sell.

I won´t get back into BTC soon as long as there is not at least 1 professional exchanger on the market. Mt Gox is more or less gone.
No professional exchanger is left.

Bitstamp?
They really don´t seem to have a bad attitude or try to rip someone off. They are obviously honest – but they are such amateurs when it comes to handle standard KYC and AML rules.
It kills my brain working with such an exchanger, whose backoffice consist of a few pubescent teenagers.
Well - I  hope they are just teenagers, who just got mislead by the “power” they had been given who could make them think they are the all-overlooking authority.  If teenagers, they have a good chance, that during their growing-up process they can learn from the professionals in the financial industry what AML and KYC means and how a client shall be treated…… Maybe then Bitstamp has a chance.

I believe in the BTC story - but I don´t blieve it can grow as long as there are no pros handling the exchanges.

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[crazy_rabbit]

seems like it's working again. :-)

[crazy_rabbit]

There are no general Bitcoin withdrawal issues presently. User's who are reporting that they are unable to withdraw Bitcoins will be notified individually via email.

Hazek- Could you guys please add Yubikey support? I've asked for this before, but I think it's critical. If my phone is stolen a user can log into my account (google 2fa is on my phone) AND do email 2FA verification because my email is ALSO on the same phone. Please add a yubikey so that at least I have something that is physically seperate from my phone to login. I use a yubikey on almost everything else, and it's fantastic.

[Hawkix]

If your phone is stolen, a thief does not know your BitStamp username/password, does he?
I also recommend to use password locked phone.

[DynamicDK]

There are no general Bitcoin withdrawal issues presently. User's who are reporting that they are unable to withdraw Bitcoins will be notified individually via email.

Hazek- Could you guys please add Yubikey support? I've asked for this before, but I think it's critical. If my phone is stolen a user can log into my account (google 2fa is on my phone) AND do email 2FA verification because my email is ALSO on the same phone. Please add a yubikey so that at least I have something that is physically seperate from my phone to login. I use a yubikey on almost everything else, and it's fantastic.

If you have an Android, you can get "Lookout Security".

Will let you locate your phone by GPS (in case you just lost it), and if it has actually been stolen, then you can factory reset your phone from your computer.  

[bananas]

And why the very small amount of 9 thousand dollar from an already indentified customer would give any red flags regarding illegal activity? BIG LOL.

To be honest, $9000 is a pretty shady number in the world of AML/KYC.  Sad, but true.

It is not, it is not aimed at street drug dealers, it is aimed at political corruption, organized crime etc but it does not matter. Just to make sense of it all. Just ask youself if your bank, which must comply to KYC,  where you surely have more money and transactions has ever frozen your account or required invasive information about you under a treat. Ask your friends, ask your relatives, ask anyone. They all will say no! It does not happen 'cause it is not required and if you are in good stand with your bank it is even illegal to freeze an account without a judicial order.

The first bank ever to behave like Bitstamp will have its reputation ruined and will be in legal trouble.

At least here in EU, anything beyond 3K€ needs to be justified from/to bank per said periode of time ( a week I think) and the amount is even less depending on the country, I don't know about the US but I won't be surprised if there isn't something similar. Of course I'm talking about the average joe account, a professional business man, enterprise or commercent ect accounts are a different story

3k USD/EURO is pretty much the standard worldwide for international deposits, after that you have to sign an exchange contract, state the nature of the transfer and in some cases prove it(i.e. importing) or other procedures, that's one more reason that their police like behaviour is non sense, more than 3k can't go out of your bank without all the worldwide standard verifications. If sent from bank to bank, it already arrives clean for them. And they are tranfering to you, THEY ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE TO BE VERIFIED.

If they are in good faith they are at least proceeding in a wrong way by completely exagerating over KYC/AML .

[trdiablo]

In any case, whether it is wrong of them or not to ask additional KYC I am not sure, but what is wrong of them is that after you answer the KYC that their support stops responding and you dont get a reply back anymore (For 4 days now in my case)

There is no way to directly contact them. All you can do is use the support ticket system and/or email them on support@bitstamp.net and that is basically it. If you do not get a response it is tough shit but you just need to wait. That is BS. They should at least tell what the status and what the ETA is for the withdrawal process.

[jlin]

Why are my BTC withdrawal requests taking so long? I've been waiting for over half an hour and it still displays the "waiting to be processed" status.  Previous requests have taken just a couple minutes to hit the blockchain. 

[btcxyzzz]

I am waiting for 5 days now for withdrawal, along with additional KYC questionary but I'm already verified member... They said today they will release the money.

If you ask me, it seems maybe that something is going on.

[Sonny91BE]

There is a huge wall of 6000 BTC at bitstamp on the price of 578$ Why would people sell at this price ..
They don't understand that price is low only temporarily .. lolz
Price will be stuck at this level for a while so it seems.

[Rannasha]

Why do orders end up with status "In queue" for quite a while before being executed? My orders sometimes sit there for 10-15 seconds, during which price movements can mean the difference between getting a good trade and missing the opportunity. Looking at the trade history, the amount of trades going on doesn't appear to be exceptionally high, so I don't see why there'd be such a long queue.

Any thoughts on where this queue comes from and if the trade engine will be sped up to remove it in the near future?

[F-bernanke]

Why do orders end up with status "In queue" for quite a while before being executed? My orders sometimes sit there for 10-15 seconds, during which price movements can mean the difference between getting a good trade and missing the opportunity. Looking at the trade history, the amount of trades going on doesn't appear to be exceptionally high, so I don't see why there'd be such a long queue.

Any thoughts on where this queue comes from and if the trade engine will be sped up to remove it in the near future?

I raised this question a few pages back as wel. This is not acceptable.

[oda.krell]

I'm obviously not a dev at Bitstamp, but I think I can answer the question:

To my knowledge, stamp doesn't really place 'market' orders (as in: matching your order in an instant, until filled), but places successively higher/lower limit orders on your behalf if you place a market order. Hence the delay.

Not saying this excuses it, but as a consequence, I personally only use limit orders, after looking at the order book, that are set such that I can be sure my order is filled entirely. Much, much faster that way.


EDIT: unless you actually meant limit orders. In that case, ignore my above comment, please.

[F-bernanke]

I'm obviously not a dev at Bitstamp, but I think I can answer the question:

To my knowledge, stamp doesn't really place 'market' orders (as in: matching your order in an instant, until filled), but places successively higher/lower limit orders on your behalf if you place a market order. Hence the delay.

Not saying this excuses it, but as a consequence, I personally only use limit orders, after looking at the order book, that are set such that I can be sure my order is filled entirely. Much, much faster that way.


EDIT: unless you actually meant limit orders. In that case, ignore my above comment, please.

We are indeed actually talking about limit orders (Placed way higher/lower than market, So they should fill instantly, but instead they are put in queue for 10 seconds under "open orders", while the market moves away).

[oda.krell]

I'm obviously not a dev at Bitstamp, but I think I can answer the question:

To my knowledge, stamp doesn't really place 'market' orders (as in: matching your order in an instant, until filled), but places successively higher/lower limit orders on your behalf if you place a market order. Hence the delay.

Not saying this excuses it, but as a consequence, I personally only use limit orders, after looking at the order book, that are set such that I can be sure my order is filled entirely. Much, much faster that way.


EDIT: unless you actually meant limit orders. In that case, ignore my above comment, please.

We are indeed actually talking about limit orders (Placed way higher/lower than market, So they should fill instantly, but instead they are put in queue for 10 seconds under "open orders", while the market moves away).

Very strange then. I usually see my limit orders executed within a few seconds. Not exactly forex speed, but not really a problem for me (as in: compared to overall slippage I experience, the small changes of the order book don't really make a dent). No idea why it's different then. I'll pay attention to it from now on, though.

[Rannasha]

Yeah, it's about limit orders that get queued. My bot makes relatively small trades, where the profit on each trade is even smaller. While the order sits in the queue, the price can shift a few $, sometimes negating the profit that was to be made.

[bananas]

This man agree with me:

Joseph Borg, state securities administrator in Alabama and a past president of the North American State Securities Administrators Association.

Borg has been involved in a wide range of high-profile cases in his 20 years on the Alabama Securities Commission perhaps most notably pushing for the formation of the multi-state task force that ultimately shut down Stratton Oakmont, the investment firm that was the basis for the recent movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.”


“Dealing with these exchanges should be no different than dealing with your bank or your financial institution,” Borg said,

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/regulator-to-sound-alarm-on-bitcoin-2014-02-24?link=MW_latest_news

[hazek]

https://www.bitstamp.net/article/Statement-by-Bitstamp-regarding-MtGox-insolv/

Statement by Bitstamp regarding Mt Gox insolvency

Bitcoin Is Still Working and Still Has a Bright Future

The worldwide peer-to-peer payment system and crypto-currency known as Bitcoin is not dependant on any one actor. The Bitcoin protocol continues to work exactly as designed. Bitcoin remains strong despite the failure of any one exchange and will continue to grow and thrive as long people desire that it do so.

Losses Limited to Balances at MtGox

It is important to underscore that the losses of fiat currency and Bitcoin are limited to those balances that were in MtGox’s care. The MtGox exchange can best explain how this happened.

Bitstamp Customers are Safe and Our Business is Solvent

We at Bitstamp have conducted a thorough audit of our bitcoin accounts, as well as the fiat currency reserves we maintain in the bank. Bitstamp maintains all of its customers’ bitcoin and cash deposits and nothing is amiss.

Bitstamp is Not Subject to the Transaction Malleability Vulnerability

Bitstamp uses a different protocol to handle problems in closing out its transactions and is not vulnerable to the “transactional malleability” issue that was apparently exploited at Mt. Gox. Additionally, we manually double-check every transactional problem encountered by our customers.

Bitstamp’s Future

We are taking steps to provide Bitstamp’s customers with the utmost confidence in our operations:

1. Bitstamp is financially stronger than ever. We have the most customers, and the most solid capital base, than we have ever had.
2. Bitstamp has retained the best available security and compliance advisors to assist us in protecting our clients.
3. Bitstamp prides itself on industry-leading compliance with its AML and KYC procedures.
4. Bitstamp is now performing quarterly financial audits and will post our financial reports on our web site.

[maurya78]

Thanks for issuing the statement so promptly

These are nervous times for many of us, so this helps

[BigBitz]

Can Bitstamp answer why they and various other Exchange operators were made aware of this MtGox issue several DAYS prior to the public thus allowing them to not only dump their BTC at much higher prices but also ensure they could, if it happened, rid themselves of any GoxBTC/GoxUSD using the various methods that were available.

I find that wholly irresponsible from an Exchange and the various "high level" Investors involved in the "Joint Statement" -- Nejc your CEO was one of them.