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Blame the government. It's not clear that it's legal to run a Bitcoin margin trading system in the U.S. so you have to make do with less-than-ideal offshore out

• davidgerard 11y ago
  Alternately ... don't gamble on Bitcoin! Gemini is attempting to be as legit an exchange as is possible. Not sure they're offering shorting yet. OTOH, their volume is laughably tiny; everyone else is strongly suspected of frontrunning and Willybots. It turns out that crooks and scammers see an unregulated environment as a golden opportunity, but not for their customers.
  • aianus 11y ago
    > Alternately ... don't gamble on Bitcoin! It's not gambling if, say, I need to hold Bitcoin in inventory to run my business but I want to short it on Bitfinex to hedge my exposure to currency fluctuations. Not shorting would be the gamble. > Gemini is attempting to be as legit an exchange as is possible. Coinbase Exchange is a perfectly legitimate exchange too (I work for Coinbase). But accepting deposits and lending them out to other users to short and/or trade on margin is a whole different regulatory ballgame. > It turns out that crooks and scammers see an unregulated environment as a golden opportunity The regulations here are actively hurting consumers as legitimate providers are afraid to step into the space. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy (too many regulations -> only idiots and crooks offer services -> consumers lose money -> more regulation). Edit: opinions are my own, not Coinbase's, yada yada