Skip to content

Well, no, this isn’t quite how it works

One of the world’s biggest bitcoin exchanges has warned that its systems may collapse if there is a run on the digital currency, leaving investors unable to cash out their holdings.

Brian Armstrong, the chief executive of Coinbase, said fears of wild swings in the value had led the platform to restrict how much customers can sell — “to protect client accounts and assets”.

Restrictions on how much you can sell – on the world’s most liquid exchange and yes, it is, in terms of real liquidity of turning it into fiat cash – just supports the price, don’t they?

10 thoughts on “Well, no, this isn’t quite how it works”

  1. All the hipsters that ‘lose’ their ‘investment’ in Bitcoin will be complaining that they can’t get on the housing ladder tomorrow.

    No doubt, it’ll be the older people who forced them into a stupid ponzi scheme in the first place.

  2. So Much For Subtlety

    I did like the claim Bulgaria could pay off a third of its national debt because of the bitcoins it stole from some criminals.

    I would like to see them try. Selling off that much might do a lot to change the price. How liquid is the market?

  3. Throughout this, it’s amazed me how few people (including here) seem to have a clue how a market works. The important difference between bids & offers & a struck price, for a start. The invariable rule that for every buyer there must be matching sellers & for every sale, matching buyers.

  4. If a high street bank restricted your ability to get cash at all, would that not indicate a run on the bank is possible in order to get ANY of your money?

  5. Bloke in North Dorset

    bis,

    Indeed. People forgetthat something is only worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it.

  6. How? I mean a lot of the value of Bitcoin is in the liquidity, that it is something that makes it very easy to use to transfer value to anyone worldwide.

    Coinbase is doing their best to destroy that with this move. They already have been attacking it, by promising to cooperate with IRS shitbags, and by banning accounts used to transfer BC to political dissidents. Everyone involved in Coinbase is an enemy of freedom and deserves what the Sparticists got.

  7. @Paul Rain, December 10, 2017 at 7:58 pm

    How? I mean a lot of the value of Bitcoin is in the liquidity, that it is something that makes it very easy to use to transfer value to anyone worldwide.
    Coinbase is doing their best to destroy that with this move

    Really?

    Coinbase has two core products: a Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX) for trading a variety of digital assets on its professional asset trading platform, and a user-facing retail broker of Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin for fiat currency.

    In other words, like any bank, they do not have enough cash-reserves to swap huge amounts of bitcoins for $s. Selling Bitcoins to buy Litecoins may be less problematic.

    …by promising to cooperate with IRS shitbags…</blockquote
    You'd prefer Coinbase to be shutdown by IRS?

    November 29, 2017, A California federal court has ordered Coinbase to report 14,355 users to the IRS… all users who have bought, sold, sent, or received more than $20,000 through their accounts in a single year”

    What are you? Naive? Stupid? Lefty anarchist?

    All three is my opinion.

  8. One has to doubt, of course, the wisdom of using an agent to buy a virtual currency that’s incorporated in the same jurisdiction as one is resident. Somewhat negates the advantage of the currency.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *