5 ms·

Am I the only one that just sat there seeing BTC transactions of $1m+ and thinking "Damn, who's that guy?"

opportune 9y ago
I noticed that and I have absolutely no idea how there are so many huge transactions. The peak of the drugs-from-the-internet era looked like child's play compared to this. The only rational explanations I can think of are either money laundering, institutional investors, or very wealthy people buying bitcoin as an insurance strategy. I do feel bad for the people who are buying into the "digital gold" narrative at this point in time. I hope none of these big buyers are just regular joe's with sub-7-figure net worths who are just being irresponsible with their money due to the "hype"
- Cthulhu_ 9y ago
  The BTC market cap is nearly worth $300 billion, naturally there will be "large" transactions like that in something that big. Just Coinbase moving something to / from their cold storage is probably worth tens of millions in USD. And of course there's a lot of rich people and businesses that make larger transactions. A million doesn't feel like that much money anymore for billionaires. That's like spending $1 if you've got $100 in your wallet.
  - ejolto 9y ago
    > That's like spending $1 if you've got $100 in your wallet. You are off by an order of magnitude.
    - opportune 9y ago
      Yep it's $1 to $1000 Furthermore I highly doubt that it's mostly billionaires with >$1m USD holdings of BTC. There simply aren't enough to sustain this level of transactions.
  - jackpeterfletch 9y ago
    Theoretical market cap. Its estimated that at least 40% of the coins are lost.
- losteric 9y ago
  Why, exactly, is everyone purchasing crypto-"currencies"? I abandoned bitcoin over 5 years ago because it was just blackmarket barter... now the Chinese use it to bypass state regulations while Russian ransomware holds computers hostage for bitcoin. What is the volume of legal purchases versus speculative and blackmarket transactions? Why do people have any confidence in these digital assets?
  - ChristianGeek 9y ago
    To start (to answer your first question), if you’d held on to the bitcoins you had 5 years ago, they’d have increased in value well over a thousand-fold. So definitely speculation.
    - losteric 9y ago
      I think bitcoin's value really boils down to being a quasi-legal forex medium - bypassing international sanctions and state regulations. That is a reasonable argument to hold coins if the expectation is increased adoption. However, when sales are restricted for illegally bypassing sanctions (eg US) or enabling capital flight (eg China), we will see the market fall to near-zero because bitcoin is not a currency.
      - rmwaite 9y ago
        What is a currency?
        losteric 9y ago
        A universally recognized asset for exchanging goods and services within a nation. For example, everything for sale in America can be purchased with dollars. That is a key distinction - currencies have strength because they are nationally recognized. If every nation banned trading Australian dollars, they would still hold value in Australia... and there are millions of people working to ensure AUD continues to hold value and confidence outside of Australia. If every nation banned trading bitcoin, they would be worthless... in fact, they would be worthless if only a couple key nations banned the coins.
lambda 9y ago
Why would you think it was a single person? Many of the large transactions are likely payment processors moving bitcoins into and out of exchanges, not any individual. Or mining rig operators cashing out to finance their power bills (and I'm talking the big mining operations, not someone's one or two miners in their apartment).
ohnoesmyscv 9y ago
Sometimes it’s just exchanges moving their assets around

I noticed that and I have absolutely no idea how there are so many huge transactions. The peak of the drugs-from-the-internet era looked like child's play compared to this. The only rational explanations I can think of are either money laundering, institutional investors, or very wealthy people buying bitcoin as an insurance strategy. I do feel bad for the people who are buying into the "digital gold" narrative at this point in time. I hope none of these big buyers are just regular joe's with sub-7-figure net worths who are just being irresponsible with their money due to the "hype"

Cthulhu_ 9y ago
The BTC market cap is nearly worth $300 billion, naturally there will be "large" transactions like that in something that big. Just Coinbase moving something to / from their cold storage is probably worth tens of millions in USD. And of course there's a lot of rich people and businesses that make larger transactions. A million doesn't feel like that much money anymore for billionaires. That's like spending $1 if you've got $100 in your wallet.
- ejolto 9y ago
  > That's like spending $1 if you've got $100 in your wallet. You are off by an order of magnitude.
  - opportune 9y ago
    Yep it's $1 to $1000 Furthermore I highly doubt that it's mostly billionaires with >$1m USD holdings of BTC. There simply aren't enough to sustain this level of transactions.
- jackpeterfletch 9y ago
  Theoretical market cap. Its estimated that at least 40% of the coins are lost.
losteric 9y ago
Why, exactly, is everyone purchasing crypto-"currencies"? I abandoned bitcoin over 5 years ago because it was just blackmarket barter... now the Chinese use it to bypass state regulations while Russian ransomware holds computers hostage for bitcoin. What is the volume of legal purchases versus speculative and blackmarket transactions? Why do people have any confidence in these digital assets?
- ChristianGeek 9y ago
  To start (to answer your first question), if you’d held on to the bitcoins you had 5 years ago, they’d have increased in value well over a thousand-fold. So definitely speculation.
  - losteric 9y ago
    I think bitcoin's value really boils down to being a quasi-legal forex medium - bypassing international sanctions and state regulations. That is a reasonable argument to hold coins if the expectation is increased adoption. However, when sales are restricted for illegally bypassing sanctions (eg US) or enabling capital flight (eg China), we will see the market fall to near-zero because bitcoin is not a currency.
    - rmwaite 9y ago
      What is a currency?
      - losteric 9y ago
        A universally recognized asset for exchanging goods and services within a nation. For example, everything for sale in America can be purchased with dollars. That is a key distinction - currencies have strength because they are nationally recognized. If every nation banned trading Australian dollars, they would still hold value in Australia... and there are millions of people working to ensure AUD continues to hold value and confidence outside of Australia. If every nation banned trading bitcoin, they would be worthless... in fact, they would be worthless if only a couple key nations banned the coins.

lambda 9y ago

Why would you think it was a single person? Many of the large transactions are likely payment processors moving bitcoins into and out of exchanges, not any individual. Or mining rig operators cashing out to finance their power bills (and I'm talking the big mining operations, not someone's one or two miners in their apartment).

ohnoesmyscv 9y ago

Sometimes it’s just exchanges moving their assets around