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The real news is that Coinbase can't handle traffic spikes induced by micro panics. But this was a correction, not a crash. The price of BTC only dropped below

by fny 9y ago

The real news is that Coinbase can't handle traffic spikes induced by micro panics. But this was a correction, not a crash. The price of BTC only dropped below the 10-day moving average and remains well above the 30-day moving average, which remains well above the 50-day moving average, which remains well above the... A chart http://imgur.com/a/TkilO http://imgur.com/a/TkilO built with Bitstamp's tradeview. [0] Disclaimer: I don't own any BTC. [0]: https://www.bitstamp.net/market/tradeview/ https://www.bitstamp.net/market/tradeview/ Added question: In the case of a Coinbase crash, can't Coinbase customers use their private keys to make transactions on other exchanges or are they somehow locked into using Coinbase? I always thought you could happily store your credentials on paper and do business wherever, however.

jnordwick 9y ago
It's down 17% from its highs a couple days ago. That's not something to blow off. If this was the stack market or the dollar people would be screaming for HFT heads. Just look back to the flash crash that didn't even last a day.
- fny 9y ago
  Bitcoin isn't a market or national currency. Bitcoin in more like a highly volatile equity or commodity. If the price of a volatile stock jumped from $21 to $30 in a week, and then cooled off to $24 two weeks later, no one would call it a crash. Just add to zeros to all those number, and that's exactly what happened to Bitcoin.
- jszymborski 9y ago
  Speaking purely from the perspective of someone who holds a small sum of BTC, this seems totally normal and honestly predictable. Again, I'm not an econ guy so this may be naive, but BTC strikes me as just crazy volatile and runs at break-neck speeds. Instead of having a great-depression or recession last years, it last a couple weeks to a month... ditto for bull markets. This month, BTC->USD rates have hockey-sticked, people on /r/bitcoin were cheering. This happens cyclically and is a signal that it's time to sell and buy the subsequent crash or wait it out until others do. It certainly feels like a correction.
- FreakLegion 9y ago
  > If this was the stack market or the dollar The US market and dollar are much larger entities with a lot more inertia. Bitcoin is roughly comparable to a single major company, and big swings in the share price of individual companies, even major ones, are relatively common.
micah94 9y ago
No, the coin you have in an exchange is theirs. You don't have those private keys. And the coin can move around. Coinbase actually flaunts this as a feature (you can give money to other Coinbase users without using the blockchain). This is also why they won't accept generated coins from mining payouts.

by fny 9y ago

jnordwick 9y ago

It's down 17% from its highs a couple days ago. That's not something to blow off. If this was the stack market or the dollar people would be screaming for HFT heads. Just look back to the flash crash that didn't even last a day.

fny 9y ago
Bitcoin isn't a market or national currency. Bitcoin in more like a highly volatile equity or commodity. If the price of a volatile stock jumped from $21 to $30 in a week, and then cooled off to $24 two weeks later, no one would call it a crash. Just add to zeros to all those number, and that's exactly what happened to Bitcoin.
jszymborski 9y ago
Speaking purely from the perspective of someone who holds a small sum of BTC, this seems totally normal and honestly predictable. Again, I'm not an econ guy so this may be naive, but BTC strikes me as just crazy volatile and runs at break-neck speeds. Instead of having a great-depression or recession last years, it last a couple weeks to a month... ditto for bull markets. This month, BTC->USD rates have hockey-sticked, people on /r/bitcoin were cheering. This happens cyclically and is a signal that it's time to sell and buy the subsequent crash or wait it out until others do. It certainly feels like a correction.
FreakLegion 9y ago
> If this was the stack market or the dollar The US market and dollar are much larger entities with a lot more inertia. Bitcoin is roughly comparable to a single major company, and big swings in the share price of individual companies, even major ones, are relatively common.

micah94 9y ago

No, the coin you have in an exchange is theirs. You don't have those private keys. And the coin can move around. Coinbase actually flaunts this as a feature (you can give money to other Coinbase users without using the blockchain). This is also why they won't accept generated coins from mining payouts.