Topic: MtGox withdrawal delays [Gathering] - page 256. (Read 908613 times)

That's the mother of all questions!

And I don't think it's many people that put fiat in. Hence the long withdrawal delays.

Why pay 144USD at MtGox for a Bitcoin when I can get it for 128USD at Bitstamp?

Ha, ya, they could probably resolve any solvency problems they may or may not have had in short order by doing that.

They mystery to me is who is putting fiat in given that it is a relatively shitty place to buy if price is what one cares about?  The most rational explanation is that whoever is putting fiat in has priorities which include more than simple price because it doesn't seem that Mt. Gox has the overwhelming liquidity advantage that has characterized their operation up until recently.

hi guys

anyone having japanese lawyer in his book adress?

If it's just about getting your money out, Then you have that option. If they still are taking new deposits and you object to that, then maybe we have a greater responsibility?

Japan.  The US authorities have been making most of the trouble in the first place, and hold the key to solving them.  The best would be to report the US authorities to the US authorities, or perhaps the Japan authorities or both.  Its a mess.

I don't know if they have anything similar to class action in Japan.  Btw, if you are going to Japan to show up in court, you may use the opportunity to get a Japanese bank account and withdraw your money.

I depends on which law hey are under. We might have to press criminal charges on them first for fraud to have a go in civil court.

Are we ready to do that?

Do we report them to both Japan and US authorities?

hi guys

anyone think of a class action or something similar against mtgox?

I don't think this adds up. If you're able to get your $ out of Gox a stampede would be great since you could sell your $100 Bitstamp coins for $500 or whatever. The bigger the spread the better the arbitrage.

There is always the possibility that Mt. Gox itself, or someone closely associated with it who can get USD out, is exploiting the arbitrage opportunity.

If, for reasons which remain mysterious to me, there is a comfortable and stable gap between Mt. Gox and others, and if one has a relationship with Mt. Gox which allows the kind of turn-around needed to succeed at arbitrage, then it makes the most sense to try to just keep the happy state of affairs chugging along.  A 'stampede' at Mt. Gox would probably spell it's flame-out and thus the end to the milking the arbitrage.

I think a redneck shot it.

How would the goose die?

Ya don't kill the goose that is laying the golden eggs, ya know.

If there was a deal going on, then why wouldn't they just say so? Everybody wishes that someone from Gox was answering questions, instead of some Norwegian dude.

Also, if he's an arbitrager, then why would he want to calm people down? A stampede would be perfect for him since Gox' bitcoin price would inflate further...

calming this tread down. Without him this tread would be one way street, you dont want a stampede. Believe me you feel a lot better when every other post is reasuring words.
He has some deal going, he is not stupit.

Yes, no doubt about that.  8 M USD between April and August this year, and as you discovered yourself, half a mill in normal trading fees during the past 30 days.  In addition to this there have been much mixed currency trading the last month.  E.g. people selling BTC for JPY to bids made in another currency.  MtGox takes 2.5% for the currency conversion.  Most EUR and JPY volume was mixed currency.  Before April they didn't have much profit, but accumulated BTC fees from their early days is > 100k BTC which can be sold in an emergency.  This alone can cover the entire amount stolen by Peter Vessenes or seized by DHS.

I'm an optimist.

As he is in Norway he needs someone local with a Japanese bank account, so he has teamed up with someone and in lieu he puts in a good word as part of the deal.

While I'm also not sure he gets it, he (maybe invountarily, maybe clumsily) raises an interesting point: if mtgox is operating as a fractional reserve (and it is, since AFAIK many funds are frozen), then yes its reserves might be drained out by too many people buying them.

Don't forget the $5.3M that was not returned to Mt.Gox and is being held by Coinlab.

Um...last I heard, to place a bid for $1000 worth of BTC, one first needs to somehow get $1000 to Mt. Gox.  The fees cover operating expenses.  Operating expenses include $10M lifted by Coinlabs and the US Govt of course.  Have Mt. Gox made the kind of money needed to account for this loss?  Who knows?  Bitcoincharts claims that $60M exchanged in the last 30 days.  Around 1/2 a mill.  Volume seems low compared to earlier this year when the prices (and thus, the fees) were higher.  Unknowns what the operating and infrastructure expenses are, but a mind-based back-of-the-envelope scribble seems to indicate that that they would be close to break-even without dipping to heavily into customer funds.

It is unknown how many other funds of theirs have been appropriated by the various financial institutions they deal with.  Also, I could imagine that they could have invested heavily in certain infrastructure earlier this year when they thought that their US troubles would be behind them complements of the Coinlabs deal.

It does not seem outrageous to me to hypothesis that they could have some cash flow issues though I had discounted it in the past.  OTOH, other hypothesis are also sufficient to explain their troubles.  One way or another, I would have to guess that the fiat inflows from buyers are dwindling significantly since their price sucks from that perspective, and the market-share which defines fees is also on the down-slide due to their inability to provide an actual exchange function for a broad swath of the userbase.

Will Mt. Gox pull through?  If not, will I be able to claim from the pool of funds held by the USG or Coinlabs?  All good questions.  Mt. Gox has proven to be survivors so far...and they have been through a lot in the brief history of Bitcoin.