Coinbase is an automated mechanism that matches buyer to seller, although it does you the extra favor of storing your private keys for you (something a lot of p

Coinbase is an automated mechanism that matches buyer to seller, although it does you the extra favor of storing your private keys for you (something a lot of people don't trust, probably for good reason). I don't know what external hooks there are that add liquidity, perhaps some of the other exchanges including the one it owns. Otherwise it would feel more like an E-Bay auction than a fast-paced market. If everyone withdraws at once, you'll have 10 sell orders at the same time that need to be filled 'someplace' on the other side. If no one wants it anymore, the asking price will have to get lower and lower. Coinbase shows you some sort of average price, but you can see a list of the orders put in if you log on an actual exchange like Bittrex. When I saw the sell and buy orders sitting in a queue waiting to be filled, some low-ball, etc., things starting to click for me. The above is what I've gleaned from observation and reading. I could be wrong - and if there's one thing about this crypto bubble craze, is it's motivated me to learn about markets/exchanges, money, cryptography, and more. And to think about this things more abstractly and even critically.