Seems like those with bitcoin at mtgox are hitting the bid even though it's around 40% less than bitstamp. Wondering what the benefit is to be a creditor of mtgox in the form of a cash balance instead of a bitcoin balance (in the event mtgox is broke)? Clearly someone thinks there's a benefit to have a cash balance vs a bitcoin balance bc if mtgox says withdrawals are now permitted those people selling now will end up having incurred significant losses.
I contemplated this 6 months ago when Mt. Gox was looking pretty shaky to me and choose to remove half of my BTC and convert the other half to cash and try to get it wired. At that time I figured that I'd have an easier time collecting fiat than BTC if it came to needing to attempt the feat through legal channels.
It is also the case that I am a U.S. citizen and my government appropriated $5M which should be kicking around somewhere. I very much anticipated the need to make a grab for a piece of that. I probably would not have tried to get any fiat from Mt. Gox at all but for this potential fall-back option.
BTW, it was exactly 6 months ago that I made exchange sales (in one shot) and requested a $5k wire. Mt. Gox support claimed that they were anticipating progress in several weeks. They claimed that several times. I've not received the wire yet.
