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> This is strange. It is indeed strange...and strangely familiar. Every Bitcoin company that has had massive holes in its books has first claimed that technica

> This is strange. It is indeed strange...and strangely familiar. Every Bitcoin company that has had massive holes in its books has first claimed that technical difficulties were the reason they had to suspend withdrawals. Then over the following weeks comes the annoucement that the money has been stolen, lost, or law enforcement moves in and says it has been embezzled. I would be extremely uncomfortable at the moment if I had money in Bitstamp. If withdrawal capability does come back online, try to get your money out ASAP.

craigmccaskill 12y ago
> try to get your money out ASAP. This is probably what a lot of people will try to do, which will lead to further drops in price. I wouldn't be surprised to see prices break the 1y low at this point.
- Animats 12y ago
  "I wouldn't be surprised to see prices break the 1y low at this point." Already happened. Yesterday. Bitstamp now has a huge PR problem. Even if they "fix" the problem and resume withdrawals, no one will believe they're solvent without an outside audit. They had a sort-of audit once before (Bitcoins only, not fiat), but now customers will want a full audit.
Animats 12y ago
Bitstamp has a blog, a web site, a Facebook page, and a Twitter feed. None of these have any mention of problems. There's a report on Reddit that withdrawals stopped 16 hours ago: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2rayix/bitstamp_bitcoin_withdrawal_not_processing_in_time/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2rayix/bitstamp_bit... Yet no official comments from Bitstamp. Just a strange email, possibly forged. That's a very bad sign. "It is indeed strange...and strangely familiar." Right. This is a pattern we've seen so many times before in the Bitcoin world. "If withdrawal capability does come back online, try to get your money out ASAP." Yes. Definitely.
- swinglock 12y ago
  When logged in on the balance page it says: "DO NOT DEPOSIT TO PREVIOUSLY PROVIDED BITCOIN DEPOSIT ADDRESSES. Deposits sent to previous address will not be honored. New deposit addresses are forthcoming.".
  - Animats 12y ago
    Well, at least they're doing that. But there's still no explanation on their site, blog, Twitter, or Facebook, and it's after 8 AM on Monday in London. Expect this to start hitting the financial press in London in the next hour or two.
    - davidgerard 12y ago
      I think you overestimate Bitcoin's media profile. FT Alphaville is just mentioning yesterday's crash. Apart from that, only the Bitcoin press and fragments of the tech press (Wired, TechCrunch) have mentioned Bitstamp. edit: whoops, added to the FT Alphaville article! http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/01/05/2079012/who-needs-caveat-emptor-when-youve-got-bitcoin/ http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/01/05/2079012/who-needs-cave... Come in via Google News for full text. They're using it as one example in a piece on how Bitcoin's infrastructures and the community's ability to assess expertise are not very good.
      - Animats 12y ago
        I think you overestimate Bitcoin's media profile. Two days later, it's in the Economist, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, etc. Mt. Gox underestimated Bitcoin's media profile. When they went down, they acted as if the event would mostly be ignored and they could quietly get away with it. Instead, they got coverage in just about major business newspaper worldwide: WSJ, NYT, Forbes, South China Morning Post, China Daily, even al-Jazeera and Russia Today. Bitstamp seems to be dead. They said they'd be down for "24-48 hours". Two days later they're still down. They haven't issued any new statements. There's a good chance they're in "take the money and run" mode.

craigmccaskill 12y ago

> try to get your money out ASAP. This is probably what a lot of people will try to do, which will lead to further drops in price. I wouldn't be surprised to see prices break the 1y low at this point.

Animats 12y ago
"I wouldn't be surprised to see prices break the 1y low at this point." Already happened. Yesterday. Bitstamp now has a huge PR problem. Even if they "fix" the problem and resume withdrawals, no one will believe they're solvent without an outside audit. They had a sort-of audit once before (Bitcoins only, not fiat), but now customers will want a full audit.

Animats 12y ago

Bitstamp has a blog, a web site, a Facebook page, and a Twitter feed. None of these have any mention of problems. There's a report on Reddit that withdrawals stopped 16 hours ago: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2rayix/bitstamp_bitcoin_withdrawal_not_processing_in_time/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2rayix/bitstamp_bit... Yet no official comments from Bitstamp. Just a strange email, possibly forged. That's a very bad sign. "It is indeed strange...and strangely familiar." Right. This is a pattern we've seen so many times before in the Bitcoin world. "If withdrawal capability does come back online, try to get your money out ASAP." Yes. Definitely.

swinglock 12y ago
When logged in on the balance page it says: "DO NOT DEPOSIT TO PREVIOUSLY PROVIDED BITCOIN DEPOSIT ADDRESSES. Deposits sent to previous address will not be honored. New deposit addresses are forthcoming.".
- Animats 12y ago
  Well, at least they're doing that. But there's still no explanation on their site, blog, Twitter, or Facebook, and it's after 8 AM on Monday in London. Expect this to start hitting the financial press in London in the next hour or two.
  - davidgerard 12y ago
    I think you overestimate Bitcoin's media profile. FT Alphaville is just mentioning yesterday's crash. Apart from that, only the Bitcoin press and fragments of the tech press (Wired, TechCrunch) have mentioned Bitstamp. edit: whoops, added to the FT Alphaville article! http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/01/05/2079012/who-needs-caveat-emptor-when-youve-got-bitcoin/ http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/01/05/2079012/who-needs-cave... Come in via Google News for full text. They're using it as one example in a piece on how Bitcoin's infrastructures and the community's ability to assess expertise are not very good.
    - Animats 12y ago
      I think you overestimate Bitcoin's media profile. Two days later, it's in the Economist, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, etc. Mt. Gox underestimated Bitcoin's media profile. When they went down, they acted as if the event would mostly be ignored and they could quietly get away with it. Instead, they got coverage in just about major business newspaper worldwide: WSJ, NYT, Forbes, South China Morning Post, China Daily, even al-Jazeera and Russia Today. Bitstamp seems to be dead. They said they'd be down for "24-48 hours". Two days later they're still down. They haven't issued any new statements. There's a good chance they're in "take the money and run" mode.