This, along with the announcement, triggered a landslide. Or you may call it a bubble burst. Which is fortunate for Pirate, bacause he can now buy back the coins at half price, and have a chance to pay back what he owes. If he makes it, he will profit thousands of BTC in bets against his own default.
Very clever, and not what anyone expected.
Some of the coins may be sold again when released by Pirate, but not that much I think. Pirate may hope for it, and pay out at a slow pace to get cheap coins from old customers selling in panic.
Hey, credit where credit is due: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/a-bitcoin-savings-and-trust-exit-plan-incentivizing-the-destruction-of-bitcoin-94516
Granted, I didn't realize that just crashing the market might be enough to pull it off. Depends on how much has been transferred into the fund and when those transfers were, but maybe even just doubling his money could make a big difference. After all, it takes 10 weeks of compounding at 7% to double.
Or he's actually figured out how to get those returns...