Where are all these bought bitcoins going?

[Desolator]

How am I the only one I see wondering about this?  Someone (and I do mean one because I doubt 1000 people suddenly independently decided it was buying time) bought something like $400,000-700,000 US worth of bitcoins to get it to this price.  I certainly am not hopping on this one until someone knows who.  You can't move that kind of volume without one single person here not knowing if someone is investing or scamming or creating a new business or what.

The most likely situation is that they're purposely causing a slow, seemingly sustained rise to fool people.  Everyone buys after it goes up and up and up for days.  So let's say the math says that one person raised the price by $2.50 and everyone else following along with buying, hoping to make money on the way up, raised it the other $1.50.  One giant sell-off of the entire volume a few days after it levels off a bit to put in some cushion purchase bids and tada, they made money.  Theoretically that one person would make something like the difference in price caused by everyone else on the way back down.  Of course, that assumes that more people buy in than take the opportunity to sell a large stack of their built up BTC.

But seriously, what else would someone have planned for around 100,000 BTC that were just bought?

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[casascius]

Everyone I tell about Bitcoins who can afford some wants a few.  They want to hold them long term because that's what I'm suggesting they do and that's what I'm doing.  But they don't know much about them.  So they buy them and shove them in a drawer or something (paper wallet or physical bitcoins).

This scenario has to be happening all over the place.

[somestranger]

It's certainly not a single person buying all of these Bitcoins. Like casascius, a lot of people want in on Bitcoin and those that have already been investing all along have likely been purchasing more. I know I have, and look at all of the bullish sentiment echoed on this forum.

[SaintFlow]

the rich echolon of our society just closing the leak in their hedge?

After all bitcoin has been around and stays around.

sign to take it serious if you havent

[Desolator]

That reminds me...I haven't been looking into this a lot lately but is there a faster, decent way to do a USD -> BTC transaction?  Going through some never-heard-of 3rd party Paypal clone like dwolla to even be able to use Tradehill or MTGox is enough to turn 99% of the people off immediately.  If there was in the last week or two a new service that opened that lets people use credit cards or personal checks or paypal or something, that would explain the massive buying.  You're right, everyone I know would hop on it for $50 or so if it was easier and more direct.

By the way, I don't think any company should do any of those 3!  Paypal is soooo reversible and chargebacks and stolen credit card usage is a problem for credit cards.  Checks take too long to clear and can be faked and bounce and stuff so that's out.  I dunno, EFT I guess?  That'd be kinda nice.

Anyone know about any new, fast way to get BTC that's causing massive buying?

[Desolator]

It's certainly not a single person buying all of these Bitcoins. Like casascius, a lot of people want in on Bitcoin and those that have already been investing all along have likely been purchasing more. I know I have, and look at all of the bullish sentiment echoed on this forum.

I don't get that though.  Every indicator that involves reality instead of pure math said 2 weeks ago BTC was going to either crash permanently or stay at just barely above the average cost of electricity on a mining rig forever.  Who would want to invest in that?

[somestranger]

I think it largely has to do with market confidence. People were proclaiming the imminent death of bitcoin at $2 and this resurgence has shown it's here to stay despite past setbacks. Also, a lot of the kinks have been worked out so to speak; we don't have mtgox getting hacked, mybitcoin running away with money, or a poorly run exchange losing 12000 BTC because they stored their wallet on temporary storage. I think S3052's recent article puts it best: http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2012/01/breakout-in-the-bitcoin-race/ .

[Crypt_Current]

It's certainly not a single person buying all of these Bitcoins. Like casascius, a lot of people want in on Bitcoin and those that have already been investing all along have likely been purchasing more. I know I have, and look at all of the bullish sentiment echoed on this forum.

I don't get that though.  Every indicator that involves reality instead of pure math said 2 weeks ago BTC was going to either crash permanently or stay at just barely above the average cost of electricity on a mining rig forever. 

Which indicators are you talking about?  Two weeks ago the bullish sentiment was only slightly less strong than it is today.

Who would want to invest in that?

Any smart investor that has large investments in any traditional markets.

[PatrickHarnett]

It is many people buying, and for different reasons.  OP logic is flawed - sorry.

[Cluster2k]

The most likely situation is that they're purposely causing a slow, seemingly sustained rise to fool people.  Everyone buys after it goes up and up and up for days. .....

I'm buying bitcoins because they're going up in price.  I suspect a lot of people are doing the same, thus causing the rapid build up in price.  Ready to sell all at any stage if I feel the market has turned.  It's how bubbles are made and burst.  Last one out the door is the loser 

[julz]

People I've introduced to bitcoin have bought over 1500 BTC in the past month... mostly just for long term speculation, but if smartphone wallet software gets better and more merchants come on board I'm sure they'll be interested in playing around with some of that for spending too.

[ripper234]

Everyone I tell about Bitcoins who can afford some wants a few.  They want to hold them long term because that's what I'm suggesting they do and that's what I'm doing.  But they don't know much about them.  So they buy them and shove them in a drawer or something (paper wallet or physical bitcoins).

This scenario has to be happening all over the place.

I'm very enthusiastic, but for some reason less convincing than you. I've been talking and blogging about Bitcoin since last April, yet only 4-5 friends actually bought any (these purchases were around April-June last year).
I've explained Bitcoin to a lot more people than that, but they usually just ended up saying "it's too dangerous, the value fluctuates too much" and watching from a far.

At first I talked about it so they could have the same chance I had to invest in Bitcoin at low low prices (anywhere under $100-$1000 is low), but after a while I had to stop pushing it so I don't come off like a pyramid scam artist.

[Elwar]

There is also the announcement that bit-pay will be allowing people to buy Bitcoins at the CES trade show using credit cards.

They will need to buy a large amount of bitcoins in order to ensure that they have enough for the show.

That is one place where they are going.


I had personally jumped out a long time ago when it crashed below $4. I jumped out because I was setting up a buy around $1.

I jumped back in because I knew that there was enough going on that the price was primed for a possible jump the likes of June's $30 rally.

[P4man]

  Every indicator that involves reality instead of pure math said 2 weeks ago BTC was going to either crash permanently or stay at just barely above the average cost of electricity on a mining rig forever.  Who would want to invest in that?

Sigh. How often do we need to explain that mining cost is NOT a factor deciding btc price? Mining difficulty (and therefore cost)  is an direct result of btc price, not the other way around.

[proudhon]

  Every indicator that involves reality instead of pure math said 2 weeks ago BTC was going to either crash permanently or stay at just barely above the average cost of electricity on a mining rig forever.  Who would want to invest in that?

Sigh. How often do we need to explain that mining cost is NOT a factor deciding btc price? Mining difficulty (and therefore cost)  is an direct result of btc price, not the other way around.

This massive sell-off is a good thing, I think.  Those coins got distributed pretty widely judging by the way bids were stacked up before the dump.  In the long run I think the fewer people with many 10s of thousands of coins, the better.

[GeniuSxBoY]

 Every indicator that involves reality instead of pure math said 2 weeks ago BTC was going to either crash permanently or stay at just barely above the average cost of electricity on a mining rig forever.  Who would want to invest in that?

Sigh. How often do we need to explain that mining cost is NOT a factor deciding btc price? Mining difficulty (and therefore cost)  is an direct result of btc price, not the other way around.

This massive sell-off is a good thing, I think.  Those coins got distributed pretty widely judging by the way bids were stacked up before the dump.  In the long run I think the fewer people with many 10s of thousands of coins, the better.

Like I said... they have 10s of thousands of coins in US dollar form. All they have to do is change it back to btc whenever they want.... possibly gaining more bitcoins than they had before!

[Crypt_Current]

Everyone I tell about Bitcoins who can afford some wants a few.  They want to hold them long term because that's what I'm suggesting they do and that's what I'm doing.  But they don't know much about them.  So they buy them and shove them in a drawer or something (paper wallet or physical bitcoins).

This scenario has to be happening all over the place.

I'm very enthusiastic, but for some reason less convincing than you. I've been talking and blogging about Bitcoin since last April, yet only 4-5 friends actually bought any (these purchases were around April-June last year).
I've explained Bitcoin to a lot more people than that, but they usually just ended up saying "it's too dangerous, the value fluctuates too much" and watching from a far.

At first I talked about it so they could have the same chance I had to invest in Bitcoin at low low prices (anywhere under $100-$1000 is low), but after a while I had to stop pushing it so I don't come off like a pyramid scam artist.

Yeah, I've tried explaining BTC / cryptocurrency to certain elderly family members, and the general reaction is "sounds like a scam to me!" Lol, well then I'll just keep this BTC to myself!

Ya know, some people are just set in their ways.  These are the same people that thought email / Internet was dangerous because it stepped on territory that "only governments SHOULD have the right" to walk on.

And then there's people that are younger and not so set in their ways, but just don't have the intelligence / global paradigm to soak it all in, or the time to get to that point (too much spent on their 9-5, 3.2 kids, mortgage, etc.)

Remember when only churches had the right to marry people (I don't either -- it was hundreds of years ago).
Everything happens in cycles and quantum jumps.
Nice blog, btw

[kjlimo]

Everyone I tell about Bitcoins who can afford some wants a few.  They want to hold them long term because that's what I'm suggesting they do and that's what I'm doing.  But they don't know much about them.  So they buy them and shove them in a drawer or something (paper wallet or physical bitcoins).

This scenario has to be happening all over the place.

+1

[Desolator]

Assuming you people are correct about it being a distributed buying, it's so "all at once" that something must have triggered it.  It took a few days but not long enough to convince people it was a long term trend so it's not just everyone hopping on the bandwagon and buying.  So something made enough people suddenly want to buy it within like a 2-3 day period to raise it by $2+.  Anyone have any ideas as to what it was?

[P4man]

I know exactly what it is: