Should we ask bitstamp who is that seller?

[johnyj]

Just to confirm if it is a real person or it is a fake account created in their database. Of course they will never acknowledge the latter

If it is a real person, then bitstamp know about this persons details due to AML and KYC rules. This will raise a question about the privacy of bitcoin trading: whales have no secret in the eyes of exchange owner

[spiderbrain]

Sure. You get to stay anonymous on an exchange as long as you don't make huge weird straight lines on the price chart. I could get behind that!

[gogxmagog]

is there a proper accounting of the whole event? did the entire 30k get bought? what was the total $ take? I'm not even sure why someone would do that let alone who. craziest thing I ever saw.

this is beautiful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uX_bB_4VJk&feature=youtu.be

I suppose the facts may become slightly more clear in the following days, but wow, just WOW!

[vuduchyld]

Sure. You get to stay anonymous on an exchange as long as you don't make huge weird straight lines on the price chart. I could get behind that!

Has to be a Hall of Fame post right there! I spit lemonade out of my nose onto my keyboard!

[Twilight_Sparkle]

Only if bitstamp wanted to hurt their reputuation with no upside for them. "Hey potential customer, don't worry your personal info is completely safe, unless random people on the internet want it."   

[spiderbrain]

Sure. You get to stay anonymous on an exchange as long as you don't make huge weird straight lines on the price chart. I could get behind that!

Has to be a Hall of Fame post right there! I spit lemonade out of my nose onto my keyboard!

Glad to be of service =D

[Useli Violent]

Just to confirm if it is a real person or it is a fake account created in their database. Of course they will never acknowledge the latter

If it is a real person, then bitstamp know about this persons details due to AML and KYC rules. This will raise a question about the privacy of bitcoin trading: whales have no secret in the eyes of exchange owner

You could go ahead and ask, but they aren't obligated to give you an answer.

[zetaray]

Does it matter who or what placed the order? I see it as some sort of price manipulation by someone or some group. If they are serious in selling that much, they could do it quietly in trenches.

[oda.krell]

Does it matter who or what placed the order? I see it as some sort of price manipulation by someone or some group. If they are serious in selling that much, they could do it quietly in trenches.

I keep hearing (well, actually: reading) that reasoning, but it just shows a fundamental lack of understanding in short to mid term trading, imo.

There was a clear and expected bounce from 275 forming. A large player who really *wanted* to get out, fast, and at the best possible price, could have done worse than putting it up as a big wall. Maybe there would have been more sophisticated ways (e.g. splitting it up over exchanges), selling it in smaller chunks, but let's be real as well: 9M USD worth of Bitcoin were sold with zero slippage, in a rather illiquid market. That's not half bad.

Now, if we assume that price will go to the moon next, sure, it was a bad decision. But at that time we're not arguing anymore whether the whale made the right decision in how he sold, but whether his outlook into the near future or our own is correct.

tl;dr Sell wall into rebound from capitulation bottom isn't really the dumbest way to get rid of large amount of coins, if you want to get rid of them.

[krb91]

Only if bitstamp wanted to hurt their reputuation with no upside for them. "Hey potential customer, don't worry your personal info is completely safe, unless random people on the internet want it."   

Bitstamp must follow the data protection laws of it's country, or face prosecution for revealing a customer's personal details. Also, that particular customer can now afford the services of the best lawyers in the world to sue on his behalf. I doubt Bitstamp will tell us who the whale is.

[exocytosis]

Now, if we assume that price will go to the moon next, sure, it was a bad decision. But at that time we're not arguing anymore whether the whale made the right decision in how he sold, but whether his outlook into the near future or our own is correct.

Whales of that size are way smarter and more knowledgeable than any regular poster on these boards. That whale knows something the cultists and bulltards don't. He knows price will be sub 250 very soon. That's why he sold.

[ravenjt]

If the whale is that clever, then it would have sold at 600, or even 1,000.
Selling at 320 rather than 600 has a much larger impact on the whale's financial wellbeing than selling in tranches or one lump sum.

[uhoh]

The guy cashed out millions, I'm sure Bitstamp went a bit further than simple KYC.

[sgbett]

Does it matter who or what placed the order? I see it as some sort of price manipulation by someone or some group. If they are serious in selling that much, they could do it quietly in trenches.

I keep hearing (well, actually: reading) that reasoning, but it just shows a fundamental lack of understanding in short to mid term trading, imo.

There was a clear and expected bounce from 275 forming. A large player who really *wanted* to get out, fast, and at the best possible price, could have done worse than putting it up as a big wall. Maybe there would have been more sophisticated ways (e.g. splitting it up over exchanges), selling it in smaller chunks, but let's be real as well: 9M USD worth of Bitcoin were sold with zero slippage, in a rather illiquid market. That's not half bad.

Now, if we assume that price will go to the moon next, sure, it was a bad decision. But at that time we're not arguing anymore whether the whale made the right decision in how he sold, but whether his outlook into the near future or our own is correct.

tl;dr Sell wall into rebound from capitulation bottom isn't really the dumbest way to get rid of large amount of coins, if you want to get rid of them.

quiet you! nobody wants to hear rational explanations

Not to mention the crazy idea that if I owned 100k coins that I bought at $100 each, I'd definitely not cash out 30% of them at a 200% gain to give me a cost basis of zero on the other 70k!!!

[zakalwe]

Does it matter who or what placed the order? I see it as some sort of price manipulation by someone or some group. If they are serious in selling that much, they could do it quietly in trenches.

I keep hearing (well, actually: reading) that reasoning, but it just shows a fundamental lack of understanding in short to mid term trading, imo.

There was a clear and expected bounce from 275 forming. A large player who really *wanted* to get out, fast, and at the best possible price, could have done worse than putting it up as a big wall. Maybe there would have been more sophisticated ways (e.g. splitting it up over exchanges), selling it in smaller chunks, but let's be real as well: 9M USD worth of Bitcoin were sold with zero slippage, in a rather illiquid market. That's not half bad.

Now, if we assume that price will go to the moon next, sure, it was a bad decision. But at that time we're not arguing anymore whether the whale made the right decision in how he sold, but whether his outlook into the near future or our own is correct.

tl;dr Sell wall into rebound from capitulation bottom isn't really the dumbest way to get rid of large amount of coins, if you want to get rid of them.

quiet you! nobody wants to hear rational explanations

Not to mention the crazy idea that if I owned 100k coins that I bought at $100 each, I'd definitely not cash out 30% of them at a 200% gain to give me a cost basis of zero on the other 70k!!!

+1

[Hyena]

What bitcoin desperately needs is a decentralised exchange, with honest pricing. The bitcoin prices from the centralised exchanges are bullshit. Also merchants accepting bitcoin via bitpay, aren't really adopting bitcoin, they just want to get paid and then convert back to fiat. A decentralised exchange should, allow merchants to accept payment instead of using bitpay, have the ability to convert to fiat currencies and other financial instruments, and the ability to create loans which could reward savers with interest. These current exchanges are complete junk.

Speaking of a decentralized exchange, I just posted this to PeercoinTalk lately:
http://www.peercointalk.org/index.php?topic=3455.0

Perhaps this has been brought up already but here's my idea:
To fight market manipulation, a P2P exchange should be developed. To my understanding, the only problem with a decentralized exchange is the trades between cryptos and the actual currency like USD. However, with NuBits being the representative of USD we could implement an exchange that operates only with cryptocurrencies. This should simplify the technical aspects of such an exchange a lot!

The traders must first buy NuBits from a centralized exchange or NuBits Shops. The latter is not a target to market manipulation because 1 nubit always equals to 1 USD. The traders must then move the nubits to a P2P exchange and trade them for bitcoins, for example. NuBits will be like a buffer between real world currencies and cryptocurrencies, allowing cryptos to be traded in a decentralized manner.

How should the decentralized exchange be implemented? The simplest way would be using Open Bazaar, but I'm sure that solely for cryptos a more effective trading platform could be developed.

[johnyj]

Only if bitstamp wanted to hurt their reputuation with no upside for them. "Hey potential customer, don't worry your personal info is completely safe, unless random people on the internet want it."  

That's the problem here, if the exchange controls all the customer information (their order and their money) and keep it as a secret, then they will become the single point of failure in the bitcoin ecosystem, just like what happened with MTGOX, lost hundreds of thousands of coins without anyone knowing what had happened (I strongly doubt that they really lost those coins, they can quietly stay in Marc's private wallet).

If the exchanges are transparent throughout the network like bitcoin, then such risk is much less. So far, only btc-china provided third party audit for their cold wallet and database, this is a way to prove that they do not manipulate the trade

[piramida]

Whales of that size are way smarter and more knowledgeable than any regular poster on these boards.

Yes, definitely. Smarter than any bear troll, that's for sure, but that is a very low bar.

[peeveepee]

Just to confirm if it is a real person or it is a fake account created in their database. Of course they will never acknowledge the latter

If it is a real person, then bitstamp know about this persons details due to AML and KYC rules. This will raise a question about the privacy of bitcoin trading: whales have no secret in the eyes of exchange owner

Privacy should be respected for many reasons.

[piramida]

What bitcoin desperately needs is a decentralised exchange, with honest pricing.

What is the honest pricing? The way I see it, there are three types of bitcoin price ranges - ones I find very low, and I buy there (now); ones I find very high, I sell some there (end of November 2013). And all the prices inbetween where you just live your life and spend bitcoins and laugh at silly bear trolls (always ).

That the price is not "honest" at some point in time is a very subjective view - so use it to your advantage, because definitely many people out there think it is honest enough to sell you coins at 280 in 2014