Bitstamp daily volume is just 10-15% of what it used to be. Why?

[the_poet]

Until 2-3 weeks ago Bitstamp volume easily reached 100,000 while now is much lower, around 10,000-15,000. Bitstamp is currently the world's largest and most important BTC exchange. Do we need to expect something dreadful?

[Rannasha]

Until 2-3 weeks ago Bitstamp volume easily reached 100,000 while now is much lower, around 10,000-15,000. Bitstamp is currently the world's largest and most important BTC exchange. Do we need to expect something dreadful?

2-3 weeks ago was in the middle of the MtGox turmoil. The last week has been relatively quiet in terms of news and other developments.

Bitcoin trading volumes can spike massively when there's a bit of panic in the air. The same trade volume development can be seen at BTC-e. Also, the spike of >100K was just a single outlier.

[Bit_Happy]

We need to expect something wonderful.   
If you convert just a small % of Bears to Bulls then the chance of a Rally is much higher.

[dreamspark]

Its just a general period of quiet with no one really buying but no one really selling either but that can all change very quickly in bitcoinland 

[V4Vendettas]

I expect its just fear after the whole Gox thing add to that all the crazy Satoshi stuff. I guess many are just looking around trying to work our for themselves which way the winds blowing.

Or could a ton of people be withdrawing from exchanges and hodling them real close ?

[Gulinborsti]

There was way too much real turmoil and FUD around Bitcoin in the last few weeks.
People are fed up and carefull and there is no real incentive to short trade Bitcoins at the moment, at least not in high quantities.

I believe that Bitcoin needs to cool down to get over all the bad reputation it earned lately and let the dust settle around the whole MtGox dilema. This will get really ugly in a frew months when the investigations and lawsuits start to produce results and people realize how much they actually lost.

However, I am surprised how stable the price was during the latest storms and without further catastrophies we will see trust coming back within the next few months.

Personally I don't expect any big movements or incentives for extensive exchange trading in the near future without any real big news which turns Bitcoin towards a wider adoption as a payment instrument. Anything else is pure speculation and we had our share of that in the last 3 month.

[arbitrage001]

There is also fear that all exchanges eventually will shut down the way mtgox did.

How many exchanges have scam depositor and trader (or claimed hacked)  thus far? Almost all of them.

[btcash]

Until 2-3 weeks ago Bitstamp volume easily reached 100,000 while now is much lower, around 10,000-15,000. Bitstamp is currently the world's largest and most important BTC exchange. Do we need to expect something dreadful?

You can thank Mark Karpeles for that. I thing a lot of people withdrew fiat and btc. At least I did.

[PoCoMo]

Lesson learned from Mt.Gox: Don't keep coins in exchange.

No coins in exchange means more of a hassle to make trades. When Mt.Gox was running I was doing some trades sometimes to just catch a bounce or profit from dip in price.

Can't do that now, so lower volume on all exchanges.

[Evil-Knievel]

This message was too old and has been purged

[Jeronimus]

Maybe it is because of the fact, that AS SOON AS you want to withdraw fiat you have to answer a whole bunch of questions (AML / KYC) like for example where you exactly got the coins from. If mined you even have to prove you have purchased mining equipment by sending some invoices. If you do not answer in a way they like you to answer, I think the coins are kept for "security reasons". Not sure about this point though, I just think I have read about that somewhere.

This is a new rule, which was recently introduced (and probably scared many people away).
I for example went to kraken, because I will BY NO MEANS justify what I do with my coins and what equipment I have bought.
Imagine I run a business selling used, worn panties. Why should I ever explain this to anyone on Bitstamp? It is my private thing, and this is basically the reason why I moved away to kraken.

The issue goes much further. Even IF you have the invoices for the mining equipment, supposed you were a successful trader and managed to increase your holdings tenfold on btc-e or other exchanges they will probably ask you for proof of that as well.
I doubt many have kept all the logs needed to prove such.

Likewise, asking for proof of having purchased some mining gear is nonsense. Anyone who purchased an AMD 5xxx/6xxx back then when BTC was below a dollar still, could justify any amount of BTC even if he did not mine at all.
On the other hand, some who purchased mining gear might have sold their BTC early and the BTC they are holding now is from evil laundered money.

So next they will ask you to show them which wallets you mined into a year+ ago... and if you did not log that data or lost the old wallets for whatever reason, you are screwed again.

They need to give you all this info BEFORE you sign up, not take your money and BTC and then trap you in. This is just shady business there.

[jbrnt]

Until 2-3 weeks ago Bitstamp volume easily reached 100,000 while now is much lower, around 10,000-15,000. Bitstamp is currently the world's largest and most important BTC exchange. Do we need to expect something dreadful?

There is concern that other exchanges may follow gox, so may be they withdrew fiat and btc, hence less trade volume. Moreover, prices has been quite stable recently, less margin for bots aswell.

[raskul]

partly this...


also bear in mind that there were many buyers of BTC who came in at > $800 - i don't reckon we'll see those coins traded again this year. Unless something radical happens and BTC price jumps to the moon; which is highly unlikely.

[Boussac]

There is also fear that all exchanges eventually will shut down the way mtgox did.

How many exchanges have scam depositor and trader (or claimed hacked)  thus far? Almost all of them.

Non compliant exchnages will shut down eventually.
Bitstamp and some other exchanges entertain some confusion between fraud prevention and compliance.

"It has always been compliant with financial regulations and users must have verified identification"

Its not because accounts are verified by the exchange that the exchange is compliant.  Verification for AML compliance must be performed by a licensed financial institution. Bitstamp is NOT a licensed ficnaial institution.
Its not a good idea to communicate misleading information about compliance to users. This is exactly wat mtgox did.
To my knowledge bitcoin central is still the only compliant exchange in Europe. I do not know about the situation in Asia with respect to compliance.