BitStamp - hacked and down

[picolo]

...And that's why the exchangers are having very, very low fees of 0.2% for trading or free for withdrawals. They do not care about these money. The REAL money are made with the Bitcoin price. How can financial company exists with 0.2% per transaction?

Super tight spreads aren't uncommon in forex trading where fierce competition between retail FX participants is the norm. Also, compared to traditional financial companies, overall transaction costs are probably lower as it only costs a couple of cents to send/receive any amount of BTC to/from anywhere in the world in minutes. So with the lower fees, lower overhead costs, and lack of middlemen, I think it would be possible for an exchange to make a profit by just trading and withdrawal fees alone.

Even when Mt. Gox had 800,000 BTC (worth almost $1 billion in late 2013), it was still a pretty small-sized company. Their expenses probably weren't that much compared to more traditional financial companies that deal with similar amounts of money. Scottrade has 4,000 employees and GAIN has about 400. A Bitcoin exchange would have, what? 5? 10? Maybe 20 tops?

The forex market is HUGE. A LOT of people are playing in it(including BIG banks). You cannot compare Bitcoin market with 1 MIL users with the forex market.

MT Gox had ONE full time employee and 3-4 part time contractors(for customer support-tickets). Try to not believe everything these guys are trying to show "you". They are small companies not corporations.

It's not something bad to be a small company. It's absolutely normal to have a small and cosy office when you run an exchanger... but these people wants bling-bling. They want to be like Trump or Zuckerberg overnight  

The bad thing is when you want to be what they are not...


You said "Mt. Gox had 800,000 BTC (worth almost $1 billion)". Let's say you have this Bitcoin. Who is will give you the money if you would have 1 billion worth of Bitcoin? Coinbase? Bitstamp, BTC-China?

Yes, nobody. because they do not have these money. But if you want to withdraw a billion from a real forex company, you will get it ASAP.

If you want to cash out 10% of all $ or any companies shares on the market, it will not be easy though.

[mayax]

Bitstamp will be forced to sell its Bitcoin due the price falling.

Let's see who will buy it

[picolo]

Bitstamp will be forced to sell its Bitcoin due the price falling.

Let's see who will buy it

Why would they need to sell their bitcoins? They don't need to sell the bitcoins of their customers and they get cash from people buying btc which they use to pay their costs.

[mayax]

Bitstamp will be forced to sell its Bitcoin due the price falling.

Let's see who will buy it

Why would they need to sell their bitcoins? They don't need to sell the bitcoins of their customers and they get cash from people buying btc which they use to pay their costs.

do you really think that a big exchanger will stay to look how the price is falling without selling his Bitcoin? It must be very stupid if he acts like that.

I mean, let's say that I have 100,000 BTC and i see the price is going down to 1 BTC = 100 USD and I know it won't recover overnight (not even in months)...what do you think that I will do ? I will SELL.  Why?
You can never know what it can happen with Bitcoin. Maybe a big exchanger will be closed, maybe a big miner is closed too...the price can be down for month-years.

Also, a big exchanger cannot have too many options if he wants to sell. He must go to one of his competitors which can or cannot have a large amount of money available for a sell of 100K BTC.

100k x 230 USD = 23 MIL USD

100K BTC x 100 USD = 10 MIL

would you throw away 13 MIL USD just because you believe in Bitcoin?  

These big exchangers are not fools. they care about their pockets alot(it is something normal). Who would not?

It's about business here not about Bitcoin bla bla...

[Richard Branson]

Trading with customers funds is a shame, but that is the price without Regulation.
Banks did the same shit.

GOX did it, bitstamp did it, and others fucked up. They operate on a ponzi and fake trades. We need exchange audits and laws to prevent these suckers to dabble with customer coins.

[Rumble]

wait so is bitstamp now not safe anymore?

[Rumble]

Bitstamp will be forced to sell its Bitcoin due the price falling.

Let's see who will buy it

Isnt that a similar mt.gox scenario? there was a site for people to sell their gox coins or something.

Theres people who believe exchanges will come back after a major mistake, despite what happened.

[Ryze]

so do you think bitstamp will recover from this at all or no? we dont have anymore exchanges left besides btc-e and that site is horrible.

[picolo]

so do you think bitstamp will recover from this at all or no? we dont have anymore exchanges left besides btc-e and that site is horrible.

bitfinex, localbitcoins...

Bitstamp seems fine since 19 000 was only a small portion of their holdings.

[Pustul]

They have just confirmed my fiat withdrawal, I'll report back once I have the money on my bank account

I just received my bank wire today   

[picolo]

They have just confirmed my fiat withdrawal, I'll report back once I have the money on my bank account

I just received my bank wire today   

The price could be lower on bitstamp because people that want to withdraw fiat prefer to do it on bitstamp than other exchanges.

[CoinCidental]

so do you think bitstamp will recover from this at all or no? we dont have anymore exchanges left besides btc-e and that site is horrible.

bitfinex, localbitcoins...

Bitstamp seems fine since 19 000 was only a small portion of their holdings.

hard to say theyre fine when they just lost 5.2 million dollars due to most likely due to  lazy security
its not gox but its not chicken feed either

[picolo]

so do you think bitstamp will recover from this at all or no? we dont have anymore exchanges left besides btc-e and that site is horrible.

bitfinex, localbitcoins...

Bitstamp seems fine since 19 000 was only a small portion of their holdings.

hard to say theyre fine when they just lost 5.2 million dollars due to most likely due to  lazy security
its not gox but its not chicken feed either

I agree we don't know yet if they are fine and 19 000 BTC is a large percentage of their equity.

[opossum]

so do you think bitstamp will recover from this at all or no? we dont have anymore exchanges left besides btc-e and that site is horrible.

bitfinex, localbitcoins...

Bitstamp seems fine since 19 000 was only a small portion of their holdings.

hard to say theyre fine when they just lost 5.2 million dollars due to most likely due to  lazy security
its not gox but its not chicken feed either

As long as they have enough reserves to cover all of their customers' deposits then they will survive. They will obviously take a short term hit to profits and will likely take a medium term hit to revenue as customers use them less as an exchange however they will likely survive over the long run

[ThePatient]

Bitstamp is the only exchange that i have a verified account with. Would sending a usd deposit there not be a good idea? has idea done so recently?

[opossum]

Bitstamp is the only exchange that i have a verified account with. Would sending a usd deposit there not be a good idea? has idea done so recently?

they have sense reopened and have claimed that all customer money is safe. I personally would not trust them for at least a few months.

If you must buy bitcoin then to a local trade or trading with someone on the forum would probably be a safier bet....as long as you use escrow and/or trade with someone trusted

[picolo]

so do you think bitstamp will recover from this at all or no? we dont have anymore exchanges left besides btc-e and that site is horrible.

bitfinex, localbitcoins...

Bitstamp seems fine since 19 000 was only a small portion of their holdings.

hard to say theyre fine when they just lost 5.2 million dollars due to most likely due to  lazy security
its not gox but its not chicken feed either

As long as they have enough reserves to cover all of their customers' deposits then they will survive. They will obviously take a short term hit to profits and will likely take a medium term hit to revenue as customers use them less as an exchange however they will likely survive over the long run

I agree they will be fine if it was indeed only a 19 000 BTC hack and they still have more than the customers deposits.