It is currently pretty much impossible to short large quantities of bitcoins. Besides, such an attack would probably crash the whole system which could render t

It is currently pretty much impossible to short large quantities of bitcoins. Besides, such an attack would probably crash the whole system which could render the potential shorts useless. Too much uncertainty for anything that big. I really can't see the way for anybody to benefit from a 51 attack. However, a potential attack will probably be a black swan, which will make it "impossible" to foresee for 99% of us, so the fact that there isn't any clear way to benefit from it, doesn't actually mean that there isn't a way.