Why didn't MtGox halt trading like they've done in the past?

sgbett

legendary

Activity: 2576

Merit: 1087

Quote from: Zangelbert Bingledack on February 21, 2014, 09:47:10 AM

Gox is out of touch and bad at communicating, but I see no reason at all to suspect insolvency or any underhandedness. They may have gotten some money stolen, and it could be a lot, but there's no particular reason to believe it's to the point of insolvency, any more than that it's trivial. They would need to carefully recount everything in either case before reopening access.

Note that SEPA and yen withdrawals seem to be working basically fine. It seems like 90% of the hysteric posts are unaware of this basic fact. MtGox isn't a black hole; plenty of money is flowing out, even if a few weeks delayed.

The market places odds at 75 to 80% that they'll never reopen BTC withdrawals, but that seems ridiculously low to me. Time to make some money on people's hysteria Grin

I knew I wasn't the only one with an under developed panic gland.

Zangelbert Bingledack

legendary

Activity: 1036

Merit: 1000

Gox is out of touch and bad at communicating, but I see no reason at all to suspect insolvency or any underhandedness. They may have gotten some money stolen, and it could be a lot, but there's no particular reason to believe it's to the point of insolvency, any more than that it's trivial. They would need to carefully recount everything in either case before reopening access.

Note that SEPA and yen withdrawals seem to be working basically fine. It seems like 90% of the hysteric posts are unaware of this basic fact. MtGox isn't a black hole; plenty of money is flowing out, even if a few weeks delayed.

The market places odds at 75 to 80% that they'll never reopen BTC withdrawals, but that seems ridiculously low to me. Time to make some money on people's hysteria Grin

raid_n

sr. member

Activity: 269

Merit: 250

Quote from: billington.mark on February 21, 2014, 05:40:55 AM

Quote from: thelema93 on February 21, 2014, 05:34:31 AM

There's a million and one conspiracy theories on this forum.
How about this one...

1. Gox really did have a bug in their bitcoin software.
2. They need to fix it like they said they do - and need to stop withdrawals to fix it.
3. 99% of bitcoin investors are either paranoid freaks or paranoid fat cats and so they all freaked and decided to sell loads of their coins - because they all read way too much into the hype and hysteria.
4. The price on Gox therefore tanked.
5. They will fix the bug and go right back to where they were before this happened.

Hmmm... almost tooooo simple?

So there ARE people on here who have the same train of thought as me!
to coin a phrase, "A watched pot never boils". In this case though, its damn hard not to stare, and I have to admit, the price drop is slightly stomach churning In a couple weeks time, hopefully, all of this will be fixed and the only thing in tatters will be gox's reputation and not users $ or BTC.

Gox has the benefit of uncertainty but their behaviour should ring alarm bells with anyone.
If they really cared about customers they'd do anything in their power to stop the FUD.
If indeed they are solvent and all is "fine" their current price level may severely damage customers selling at that price point.
As you state this whole fiasco will damage gox's reputation, probably beyond repair.

The question is how will the gox team handle this sinking ship (because thats whats happening here regardless of whether the funds are there or not).
During times of crisis the worst can be brought out in people

billington.mark

full member

Activity: 153

Merit: 100

Quote from: thelema93 on February 21, 2014, 05:34:31 AM

There's a million and one conspiracy theories on this forum.
How about this one...

1. Gox really did have a bug in their bitcoin software.
2. They need to fix it like they said they do - and need to stop withdrawals to fix it.
3. 99% of bitcoin investors are either paranoid freaks or paranoid fat cats and so they all freaked and decided to sell loads of their coins - because they all read way too much into the hype and hysteria.
4. The price on Gox therefore tanked.
5. They will fix the bug and go right back to where they were before this happened.

Hmmm... almost tooooo simple?

So there ARE people on here who have the same train of thought as me!
to coin a phrase, "A watched pot never boils". In this case though, its damn hard not to stare, and I have to admit, the price drop is slightly stomach churning In a couple weeks time, hopefully, all of this will be fixed and the only thing in tatters will be gox's reputation and not users $ or BTC.

thelema93

sr. member

Activity: 339

Merit: 250

There's a million and one conspiracy theories on this forum.
How about this one...

1. Gox really did have a bug in their bitcoin software.
2. They need to fix it like they said they do - and need to stop withdrawals to fix it.
3. 99% of bitcoin investors are either paranoid freaks or paranoid fat cats and so they all freaked and decided to sell loads of their coins - because they all read way too much into the hype and hysteria.
4. The price on Gox therefore tanked.
5. They will fix the bug and go right back to where they were before this happened.

Hmmm... almost tooooo simple?

dg2010

sr. member

Activity: 462

Merit: 250

It's fucking criminal.

Their trading platform is fundamentally broken the minute they stopped withdrawals. Allowing trading to continue was only going to end up one way, that is the price is going to plummet. Guess who's in a position to buy them up and make a huge profit when the price jumps back up?

If you can't withdraw your coins for more than 24hrs the platform should be suspended. Simple.

Oldminer

legendary

Activity: 1022

Merit: 1001

Because Mark gotta buy all up all his customers coins. Then he will stop trading & shut up shop.

fluidjax

hero member

Activity: 750

Merit: 601

Trading curbs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_curb

"Since over 50% of all trades on the NYSE are program trades, this curb was supposed to limit volatility by mitigating the ability of automated trades to drive stock prices down via positive feedback."

Regulation can be good. Fear creates illogical behaviour, which can do irreparable damage. A little time will allow people to see some sense.

A good analogy is someone impulsively trying to commit suicide, though it is their free will and right to do it, sometimes it would be desirable to forcibly stop them trying to do it, in order that they have some time to become rational and make a more considered decision.

MAbtc

hero member

Activity: 826

Merit: 508

Quote from: byronbb on February 20, 2014, 08:10:08 PM

Because they have turned the corner and become scammers.

90% drop and no trade halt? That tells you something about Mark's mindset.

byronbb

legendary

Activity: 1414

Merit: 1000

HODL OR DIE

Because they have turned the corner and become scammers.

Cluster2k

legendary

Activity: 1692

Merit: 1018

Right now MtGox reminds of a casino poker table where no one can add or subtract money. All the players are madly playing away and wondering why everyone is going broke: all the money's going in the rake no matter what happens.

MtGox would be stupid to halt trading. For one thing, it's still a massive profit center for them. It would also cause instant panic as it would look like MtGox has stolen all the funds. Keeping GoxCoins trading is the best they can do at this point.

traderCJ

sr. member

Activity: 280

Merit: 250

Quote from: ?? on ??

Quote from: doolittle on February 20, 2014, 06:10:26 PM

What I find really strange and I am surprised nobody picked up on that. Why did the Gox price tank 2 hours prior to the announcement concerning the security issues. If this is not some insider trading I do not know what is.

Could have just been traders front running, knowing with a high probability that the announcement would indicate no progress. Then, it's just a matter of feedback looping.

Possible, but more likely the work of insiders who had advance knowledge of the content of the official statement.

southerngentuk

sr. member

Activity: 1316

Merit: 254

Sugars.zone | DatingFi - Earn for Posting

Quote from: doolittle on February 20, 2014, 06:10:26 PM

What I find really strange and I am surprised nobody picked up on that. Why did the Gox price tank 2 hours prior to the announcement concerning the security issues. If this is not some insider trading I do not know what is.

volume shot up 10x from 2k to 20k, all those people jumping to turn there Goxcoin to Gox$$$ that they cannot get out ??, right before an announcement that should of confirmed resuming BTC withdraws but didn't. Huh

Whatever way I try to make sense of it, I cant. It's almost like Gox is actively engaged in a scorched earth policy to destroy themselves.

phlogistonq

full member

Activity: 159

Merit: 100

Quote from: traderCJ on February 20, 2014, 04:02:16 PM

the exchange would bring in no money while trading is halted.

This

zakalwe

sr. member

Activity: 445

Merit: 251

Quote from: doolittle on February 20, 2014, 06:10:26 PM

What I find really strange and I am surprised nobody picked up on that. Why did the Gox price tank 2 hours prior to the announcement concerning the security issues. If this is not some insider trading I do not know what is.

You are right. And the most unbelievable thing is that mtgox is golden member of bitcoin foundation. They should shoot it out at light speed now because of the way they "managed" all this issue.

Bunch of incompetent clowns.

That said, nobody keeps out of my mind that this is a big manipulation to low the price down. Now the question is:

1 - to buy veeeeeeery cheap
2 - to destroy trust in cryptos

In both cases I guess bankers have something to do with all this Grin

MoreFun

legendary

Activity: 1008

Merit: 1003

WePower.red

Quote from: seleme on February 20, 2014, 06:11:21 PM

Because he needs to buy cheap coins so he can reopen withdrawals for coins he is missing and make some more money over that Wink

Could be true, but who is the big bot seller (Willy)? Gox?

smoothie

legendary

Activity: 2492

Merit: 1473

LEALANA Bitcoin Grim Reaper

Simple: Because they take a cut of both sides of every trade.

seleme

legendary

Activity: 2772

Merit: 1028

Duelbits.com

Because he needs to buy cheap coins so he can reopen withdrawals for coins he is missing and make some more money over that Wink

doolittle

full member

Activity: 340

Merit: 101

What I find really strange and I am surprised nobody picked up on that. Why did the Gox price tank 2 hours prior to the announcement concerning the security issues. If this is not some insider trading I do not know what is.

piramida

legendary

Activity: 1176

Merit: 1010

Borsche

Quote from: evlew on February 20, 2014, 04:40:05 PM

But because mtgox code was so old/complex/etc it's taking them more time?
Did mtgox help prevent damage on other exchanges/services? Is it at all likely they are trying their best to resolve the issue?

No, not that. No matter how complex the code fix (and it isn't in this case - it's rather trivial, just check if the actual coins have been transferred or not if the transaction is marked as failed / double spend) it should not have taken longer than a week to fully implement, test, and release. So no, at that point it is pretty clear they are not trying their best, and malleability was just a cover-up for the actual fuck-up, which is a business falling apart. I assume, after they failed to fix their fiat withdrawals for half a year and lost majority of the business.

Topic: Why didn't MtGox halt trading like they've done in the past? (Read 2600 times)