Topic: MtGox withdrawal delays [Gathering] - page 270. (Read 908613 times)

This is not true.  The intenational wire delays started one or two weeks before the Dwolla problems.  After the discontinuation of all other possible withdrawal methods in just two months.

At least it is the most plausible explanation so far, and the only I can think of which explains their problems from the beginning of June.  The number of customers and trade volume grew tremendously during this time.  Last number I heard was 600k verified customers.  In the beginning of this year there were much less than 100k.

We know that.  More staff on AML verification and support.  I think they are 14 now. 

A new server cost thousands at most.  Not millions.  Mark already run a large business renting out servers (Tibanne).

Still doesn't explain the problems starting in the beginning of June.  The licence they applied for costs 200k USD.  The already spoke to the US regulators (the reason for discontinuation of redeemable codes, one of the popular withdrawal methods), and were preparing for further licensing when DHS struck out of the blue.  We are not talking millions here either.

Note that the 5% is a bank fee.

Yes, and easy conclusions are often wrong.  The math and timing just don't add up.  Bank problems is a much more plausible explanation.

So you think MtGox is 5% in minus, and the bank doesn't take any fee at all?  No, this does not sound anything near a plausible explanation to me.  Why is the 5% option very limited then, and not offered by default to everyone?  And why only for international wire?  A nice collection of speculations, but few are plausible and they certainly don't fit your conclusion.  You have to start looking earlier than the Dwolla seizures.  It is very obvious they were limited by their bank since June 5th, at least.

SEPA withdrawals are definitely slowing down again. My previous (and first) SEPA withdrawal was processed on 2013/08/19. I initiated another withdrawal on 2013/08/31 and it is still on status: confirmed today.

oh well.

This is what greets anyone looking to withdraw:


"Two weeks" as a minimum is absolutely misleading considering the delay must be at least 3 1/2 months now. There are still people with unprocessed withdrawals since then.

If a withdrawal option like Dwolla doesn't work, you disable it. If SWIFT withdrawals do not work, it would be far more honest to disable them entirely instead of deceiving your customers.

Nice summary.

Meanwhile, bitstamp volume continues to exceed Mt. Gox volume of actual trades by at least 50% each day.

I think there is a message for Mt. Gox management here to become more transparent about what is going, or the business is going to end up failing. There is nothing inherently wrong with charging a larger fee for withdrawing funds. Deliberately mis-representing the facts and not making clear those fees on the website is a different matter, which will ultimately destroy trust in Mt. Gox and lead people to use other exchanges.

I strongly believe Gox is an honest company run by an honest manager (Karpeles). They have proved it for the last years. But the hard cold fact is they are short of $10M, which is quite a sum, and they are very probably running fractional reserve in customers accounts. That's the only reasonable explanation to the absurd delays with withdrawals. We know:

- Gox handled a very big volume BEFORE the Dwolla and Coinlab issues, and they handled that volume FINE
- Bitstamp is now handling a volume that is increasing day by day, and they are doing it FINE
- Stating that Gox is "overwhelming" the biggest bank is Japan is laughable at best. That's BS.
- Gox needed to increase their operational costs during the bubble, precisely to be able to handle the customers and volume growth. We do not know how rationally that growth was managed.
- Gox invested in new servers, trading engine, etc. shortly before the Dwolla and Coinlab issues
- Being scrutinized by US regulators is quite a stress, which certainly leads to more expenses: expensive lawyers, licenses, etc. We can safely assume they are spending a lot to pull their shit together.
- Gox is offering an "emergency" withdrawal option that goes with a 5% fee. Surprise! There is no "overwhelming" if you choose that option.

Finally, the hard cold fact is Gox is having tremendous issues with withdrawals (delays and more delays), and as per Occam's Razor, the easiest answer is they have liquidity problems. Saying stupid things like "the old financial system is having problems to follow the thriving BTC economy" and such is an insult to the intelligence of their customers. They probably offer the "5% emergency withdrawal" so they can make as much money as possible with such a leonine fee, to eventually cover the holes left by the US DHS and Coinlab.

TL;DR: the hard cold facts seems to indicate that: a) Gox is an honest company, but they are withholding information regarding why they are having these problems, and in fact they are probably lying; b) they are heavily delaying outcoming wires, while incoming wires work just fine (ohhh... No "overwhelming" with incoming money?). Everything strongly indicates they are having liquidity problems, and that they have been forced by circumstances (seizures, Coinlab misappropriation) to run a fractional reserve.

Could you explain where MtGox's 10 million USD profit so far this year has gone, or are you only looking at one side of the equation?  Not to mention there are > 12 million USD worth of bids in the order book.  5 million doesn't explain anything.  You need at least 20 million USD to explain this as a lack of funds.

Omg .. ...ok will remove that email

Since Gox already has a withdrawal process that charges 5 percent to speed up the transfer going through official channels.   Why would anyone want to risk sending to someone via gmail.


And does someone who "officially" asked for faster transfer, received money already ? Maybe I would try it also ....

I'm under the impression PhoneBloks will later tell us "Wow, my friend indeed receive the money!, here is the proof bla bla bla". So the fools can send btc to that scammer.
To PhoneBloks : Unless you remove that gmail address, one should presume you are the one behind that gmail address, as you are advertising it!

Very sure it was SEPA - since I have no other bank account attached to my MtGox account.

Submitted last week of August.

Still in "confirmed".

Hey Man,

Just wanting to say that this has OBVIOUS SCAM Written all over it. Don't believe your "friend", bro.

I think it is public knowledge that $5 million was confiscated from Mt.Gox customer funds. Considering that it is a Japanese company that does not likely have such a sum of their own, excess funds, in foreign currency, this resulted in a deficit and fractional reserve in customers' accounts. It is almost certainly the root cause of this bank run.

Now, the right way to do it (paragraph III.2 - - Special situations). If all firms operated this way, the pressure of unlawful seizures would be directly on the aggressor (USGov), and there would be no bank run possible.

So now JPY withdrawals are being slowed down. This just screams "Mt. Gox is broke".

This is interesting. I agree it is most consistent with Gox not having enough USD. It costs about 3% to convert to USD at retail in Japan.

The fee is 5% plus some, so it appears there is also an international wire transfer involved, with the various fees along the way.

After their USD losses perhaps they are running a fractional reserve in USD. The real solution here would be for them to actually explain what is going on.

Please do not call me scammer, I just asked what ypu - forum members think about that, if you dont belive, I can post screenshot that my friend sent him money and right now he is waiting for a withdrawal. I should be done in a next few days

Just to re-iterate this clearly, this is 100% a scam. DO NOT send this guy any money. PhoneBloks is probably in on it or even the scammer himself. You have been warned!

For USD withdrawals, please see this analysis:

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/7064/

In all likelihood they are not processing USD withdrawals at all the normal way, they may have no bank willing to do so at the present time and they keep hoping one will show up.

The only way to get money out is the 5% option, which is inconsistently available if you ask support to do it, and then takes about a week. There are several examples past in this thread.

hm, youre right ... will inform you if friend received withdrawal or no

Obvious scam, and you are wittingly or unwittingly advertising it.

I understand your point of view .... I am skeptic also, but I can understand he asks money in advance... because where is guarantee he will get his 5 % after he made withdrawal for someone