Why hold BTC on MtGox?

[teukon]

One thing that puzzles me about the recent divergence of Mt.Gox's market rate from those of other exchanges is that there are still so many bitcoins being held on Mt.Gox.  I'm assuming that it's still possible to withdraw those bitcoins and that it's still possible to trade them for Mt.Gox dollars.  Is anyone able to explain an advantage to holding them?

If one wants to day-trade, why not do it on one of many other exchanges rather than take on the additional burden of Mt.Gox's questionable vitality?

If one has a greater confidence in Mt.Gox than has the market then why not hold Mt.Gox dollars instead of Mt.Gox bitcoins?  Mt.Gox dollars seem to share the same risk but, if things improve, then Mt.Gox dollars will certainly appreciate relative to Mt.Gox bitcoins.

Are people looking at the possibility of a failure in which Mt.Gox does not compensate people holding Mt.Gox dollars but does compensate people holding Mt.Gox bitcoins?  What would they have to gain from such a move?

Perhaps some people are day-trading on the volatility arising from changing public confidence in Mt.Gox, but 1400 BTC seems like an awful lot to ascribe to one side of this market.

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[empoweoqwj]

Some people keep them there to day trade. Some people keep them there completely oblivious to what is happening at Gox. Some people keep them there because Gox is messing up BTC withdrawals now ....

[teukon]

Gox is messing up BTC withdrawals now ....

Oh, this is news to me.  I think the situation makes more sense if bitcoins are locked inside Mt.Gox almost as effectively as USD are.

[Mobo]

Just day trade to get more btc then cashout the btc to another exchange!

[teukon]

Just day trade to get more btc then cashout the btc to another exchange!

But in this case it would make more sense to send the bitcoins to another exchange before day-trading.  Why take the risk that Mt.Gox will fail while you're still day-trading there?

[muyuu]

You can withdraw pretty quickly if you have a bank account in Japan.

Obviously not many people do or they'd be stacking the cash on arbitrage.

[teukon]

You can withdraw pretty quickly if you have a bank account in Japan.

Obviously not many people do or they'd be stacking the cash on arbitrage.

Ok, but any arbitrage will manifest as pressure on the Mt.Gox rate to converge to the global mean.  This is just another reason to prefer holding Mt.Gox dollars to holding Mt.Gox bitcoins.

[alfabitcoin]

You can withdraw pretty quickly if you have a bank account in Japan.

Obviously not many people do or they'd be stacking the cash on arbitrage.

Ok, but any arbitrage will manifest as pressure on the Mt.Gox rate to converge to the global mean.  This is just another reason to prefer holding Mt.Gox dollars to holding Mt.Gox bitcoins.

Here is my situation. I have there over 4 k usd ( in dollars). I am in eu and can do a sepa withdraw. Been verified a long time ago when i used naimly mtgox and never requested withdraw increse limit. Now i only have 1 k per day. I have requsted it and waiting...
Before i thought that when btc price go near bitstamp i would buy btc and transfer it out to the bitstamp. But price difference is now huge, or maybe just to buy and hold them and hope of future btc price around 970 usd.
Any suggestion?

[Nagle]

Here is my situation. I have there over 4 k usd ( in dollars). I am in eu and can do a sepa withdraw. Been verified a long time ago when i used mainly mtgox and never requested withdraw increase limit. Now i only have 1 k per day. I have requested it and waiting...
Before i thought that when btc price go near bitstamp i would buy btc and transfer it out to the bitstamp. But price difference is now huge, or maybe just to buy and hold them and hope of future btc price around 970 usd.
Any suggestion?

Get out of Mt. Gox any way you can. I don't think anyone except insiders like Sturle is getting fiat out of Mt. Gox in significant amounts any more. If anyone was, the spread between Mt. Gox and everybody else would not be 25% and climbing.

[cozytrade]

You can withdraw pretty quickly if you have a bank account in Japan.

No more. Now waiting for 20+ days to receive 

[empoweoqwj]

You can withdraw pretty quickly if you have a bank account in Japan.

Obviously not many people do or they'd be stacking the cash on arbitrage.

I don't think that's true anymore. Gox are screwing the locals as well ......

[muyuu]

You can withdraw pretty quickly if you have a bank account in Japan.

Obviously not many people do or they'd be stacking the cash on arbitrage.

Ok, but any arbitrage will manifest as pressure on the Mt.Gox rate to converge to the global mean.  This is just another reason to prefer holding Mt.Gox dollars to holding Mt.Gox bitcoins.

People often cannot wait months for their money so they just convert to BTC and get out.

You can withdraw pretty quickly if you have a bank account in Japan.

No more. Now waiting for 20+ days to receive 

Well. That would explain the increased spread of late...

I wonder if there are insiders from MtGox cashing big on the massive spreads.

[empoweoqwj]

You can withdraw pretty quickly if you have a bank account in Japan.

Obviously not many people do or they'd be stacking the cash on arbitrage.

Ok, but any arbitrage will manifest as pressure on the Mt.Gox rate to converge to the global mean.  This is just another reason to prefer holding Mt.Gox dollars to holding Mt.Gox bitcoins.

People often cannot wait months for their money so they just convert to BTC and get out.

You can withdraw pretty quickly if you have a bank account in Japan.

No more. Now waiting for 20+ days to receive 

Well. That would explain the increased spread of late...

I wonder if there are insiders from MtGox cashing big on the massive spreads.

Except Gox are holding up most BTC transfers out now.

[muyuu]

Except Gox are holding up most BTC transfers out now.

Never had any problems withdrawing BTC. Last time was in December.

[HerrAndreas]

Except Gox are holding up most BTC transfers out now.

Never had any problems withdrawing BTC. Last time was in December.

dont try it now. lots and lots of btc "stuck" in invalid transactions which show up as double spend on blockchain.info....
plus no answer from support.

[empoweoqwj]

Except Gox are holding up most BTC transfers out now.

Never had any problems withdrawing BTC. Last time was in December.

Its only started this month AFAIK

[cozytrade]

Its only started this month AFAIK

Was reported back in October.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=316152.0

[teukon]

There certainly do appear to be some serious issues with bitcoin withdrawals at Mt.Gox these days.  My interpretation of http://thegoxreport.com/ is that most people are managing to get funds out but a lot of withdrawals are failing.

Combining this with some form of daily withdrawal limit and you can rationally argue in favour of holding Mt.Gox bitcoins on the order book in certain circumstances.  This does support some volume but it should be temporary and declining rapidly.

And it seems that the ask-side volume of Mt.Gox is declining rapidly.  The total number of bitcoins on the order book at Mt.Gox has dropped from 1402 to 922 in the past 24 hours.

So it seems the answer to: "Why are you holding BTC on Mt.Gox?" is: "Is there a problem with Mt.Gox? ... really? ... shit! ... *clicks withdraw* (doesn't work) ... SHIT!!!"

Thanks for helping me clear this up guys.

[empoweoqwj]

Its only started this month AFAIK

Was reported back in October.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=316152.0

Fair enough. I was basing it on my own experiences with Gox. I withdrew BTC several times late 2013 without issue. FIAT on the other hand, complete disaster. Couldn't get any FIAT withdrawals done at all late 2013. Given up this year.