Topic: So what happens if Gox misses their deadline in one week? - page 2. (Read 4729 times)

Timer removed. End time: 2013-07-03+12:00:00

I've asked the reporter for the Washington Post who covers Bitcoin, Timothy Lee, to get the Post's Tokyo correspondent to visit Mt. Gox. He's looking into it.

My wager is on them not meeting the deadline. Complete silence - no announcement - wouldn't surprise me at all. The next few hours here are key for the future of BTC . . .

TOKYO - JAPAN - June 20th, 2013: Mt. Gox announced that it was "temporarily suspending cash withdrawals of USD for the next two weeks."

It's now July 3 in Tokyo. The two weeks are up at the close of business in Tokyo today.

My mistake

it was a joke

That's a reasonable concern at this point.
Excuses, and blaming others for their problems, are part of Mt. Gox's standard operating procedure, so that makes sense.
Maybe not. Bitcoin exchanges have gone bust before. There's no particular reason to think that prices will go up or down if Mt. Gox goes under. There may be a liquidity problem for a while. Already Mt. Gox volume is down. and the other exchanges aren't showing a volume increase of comparable size. Speads will probably widen.

The important thing is not to buy or sell, it's to get assets out of Mt. Gox if you can. If Mt. Gox is honest, they have 100% of the funds deposited, and taking assets out of Mt. Gox won't hurt them. If they're not...

If you really believe that one person posting on a forum is going to drive the price down, then your faith in BTC is even less than mine . . . let that sink in a little 

Relax, I'm merely posting my analysis of the situation.

I read the gov seizure notice. If memory serves, they are a Delaware corporation (no surprise there) but the account is actually based in Iowa at the same bank (credit union?) that Dwolla uses. So that's at least two registrations *assuming* they don't go after all 50 states.

Mt Gox could register with Delaware, where the frozen account is located. That would be a good start.

DO NOT GET EXCITED ABOUT GOX REGISTERING WITH FINCEN!!!

This posting might deserve it's own topic but since I'm also the OP on this post, WTF, I can do whatever I want

I, for one, am NOT feeling any better about Gox since their FinCen announcement. I do enough BTC trading where I'm also in the process of registering as an MSB. You have to understand that there are TWO registrations, one federal and one with the state. So I'm not excited about Gox because (1) FinCen registration is actually quite simple. If you already have a business incorporated and a business bank account, FinCen registration literally takes a few minutes, it's just one form and its very straightforward. Its not even something you would need a lawyer for. You simply need to give FinCen the name of your bank and bank account (for monitoring, I presume) and you have to acknowledge/promise that you have KYC policies in place and that  you will comply with all reporting requirements (CTR, SAR, etc). And thats it, it literally takes less than 30 minutes to fill out. But for Gox, its GREAT publicity, sounds proactive, makes your feel like things are happening . . . but FinCen registration is really not complex.

The hard part REALLY comes in with state registration. (1) because of the young nature of BTC its still unclear whether you need to register in all 50 states or just your primary state. (2) very, very few states have created a policy on MSBs and virtual currencies. So even the state Gox is registered in may ask them to wait for a policy paper BEFORE allowing MSB operations in that state (and thats assuming that they dont need to register in ALL 50 states!). and (3) state registration is where the real fees come in. At that point you will have to post a bond. Depending on the state, this can be into the millions of dollars. You wouldnt have to come up with the entire amount, I'm sure there's bond brokers for that, but its not a small expense if you decide to do a few states - do all 50 and it can cost you quite a bit.

I will only feel better about Gox when they resume USD withdrawals THIS THURSDAY AS PROMISED. Until then, this FinCen registration is nothing but a red herring designed to make you feel better, nothing more.

In any currency, not just USD??

Now what happens if their registration is denied?

Also, in their June 20th, 2013 statement regarding the 2 week USD hiatus they stated the following:

Please be reassured that USD deposits and transfers to Mt. Gox will remain unaffected, as will deposits and withdrawals in other currencies, and we will be resuming USD withdrawals once the process is completed.

Unfortunately however, we're seeing that withdrawal requests for other currencies (specifically Euro for me) are going unanswered by Gox. All that I've had on my request is "confirmed" and nothing has been happening for the past 8 days. When Gox processes your request it should say "processed", but that's not happening.

I'm a bit concerned that Gox may be doing a Bernie Madoff on us.

I don't think that we'll see any positive improvements in terms of withdrawals come the 2 week deadline. Instead we'll see more excuses and then the fun will start regarding BTC price.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2043360/bitcoin-exchange-files-with-us-treasury-regulatory-agency.html


Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
Jul 1, 2013 5:57 AMprint
The largest Bitcoin exchange has filed key paperwork with the US Treasury's anti-money laundering agency, but it may have come too late.

Mt. Gox, based in Tokyo, registered on Thursday with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a money services business (MSB), according to FinCEN's website.

The adoption of Bitcoin, a virtual currency that can be transferred worldwide for free using peer-to-peer software, has been stymied by concerns over compliance with different countries' anti-money laundering and financial regulations.

Mt. Gox's registration comes just six weeks after one of its U.S. bank accounts was seized. The order alleged Mt. Gox failed to register as a money transmitting business, which is required by many states and the federal government.

The account was linked to Dwolla, a payments provider, and used by Mt. Gox to transmit funds to its exchange in Japan used to buy and sell bitcoins. Dwolla was not a target of order, issued on May 14 by the U.S. District Court in Maryland and didn't have any funds seized.


One of FinCEN's missions is to combat money laundering. Bitcoin's semi-anonymous transaction system has led to concerns that it could be used to hide money and avoid taxes.

Mt. Gox's registration may have come too late. According to FinCEN's website, those running money services businesses are required to register with the agency within 180 days of when the business was established. Businesses must renew their registration every two years.

The seizure order from the federal court stated that Mt. Gox has used its U.S. account to distribute funds to Dwolla since at least December 2011.

Mt. Gox officials could not be immediately reached for comment. On June 21, the exchange stopped U.S. dollar international wire transfers. The exchange said the halt was due to its bank, which was struggling to cope with the volume of transfers over the last two months. Mt. Gox said it planned to resume transfers within a couple of weeks.

The decentralized nature of the Bitcoin system, managed by a small community of software developers, poses interesting issues for government regulators in how to apply laws and regulation, wrote Ed Felten, a professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton University.

"The people who govern Bitcoin are an obvious point of leverage for regulators," Felten wrote. "In principle, a regulator might try to compel the developers who govern the Bitcoin software to deploy certain rule changes, by compelling them to push software changes that implement the modified rules."

Bitcoin will likely prove "to be more regulable than its initial advocates thought," Felten wrote. The transition could be awkward due to Bitcoin's complexity.

"Also like the Internet, Bitcoin will flummox some of the less savvy people in government, leading to some series-of-tubes moments," he wrote.

Anyone?

The spread with gox has always existed, this is not a new phenomenon.   

Doesn't seem backwards to me. If the only way you can withdraw from Mt Gox is via bitcoins, then it makes total sense that it would drive the price of bitcoins up (higher than they would be otherwise).