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What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

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Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#91

Post by kristopolous »

captainmuon wrote: post #57
smaili wrote: post #14

> Ever wonder why Coinbase takes about a week to “process” the sell? I've actually always wondered this. What were to happen if the moment I click Sell , the price is $10K but when it's "processed", the price at that time is $1...would the USD I receive be based at time of click or time of processing?

There is not one single price, but many offers at different prices and volumes. The exchange doesn't sell or buy bitcoins, they just connect sellers and buyers (and handle the transactions). The price you see is the best current offer for the amount you are selling, I think. Usually, it changes a little, but yeah you are not guarenteed that price. If, at the time your order comes in, nobody wants to sell for $10K, bu…

They do at least a 0.5% spread + 1.5% fee. So the price listed if you are buying, it's at least 0.5% higher and if you're selling it's at least 0.5% lower. Which means if you're trying to "flip" as in buy low and sell high, you need to see at least a 4.1% or so increase to just break even. Sometimes their spread will be over 1% in both directions.

Btc usually operates in practice on a 0.5% spread or less.

There's a reason why the only name we know from the gold rush is Levi Strauss. The real money is in the facilitators of the rush, not in the prospecting.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#92

Post by kristopolous »

gt_ wrote: post #78
59nadir wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Supporting something because you like the idea of it is not smart, no. It's honorable and a great thing to do, but in terms of investments it's certainly not smart. I didn't mean "dumb money" as in all the people who invested in Bitcoin are dumb, but rather that these were not well thought out investments with sound rationales.

OK. Thanks for clarifying. You mean to say it’s not smart investing . You are judging intelligence based on purely selfish outcomes. I understand now.

"smart" and "dumb" money are technical terms in investment. It's just a label placed on a class of investments when talking about the market. You can call them whatever you want and they aren't intended to be anything more than a purely functional way to differentiate two classes of things.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#93

Post by eximius »

runeks wrote: post #47
eximius wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Issue Tether (it is issued, not mined), trade Tether for Bitcoin, BTC price in Tethers increases, due to stated and believed peg of Tether to USD, BTC raises in USD price due to arbitrage executioners. More details: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4129543-bitcoin-one-way-go-...

Which BTC/tether market(s) is this happening on? I know plenty of BTC/USD markets, but I’m not familiar with which BTC/tether markets exist.

Bitfinex which is cooincidentally owned by the same people as Tether.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#94

Post by eximius »

Kiro wrote: post #59
eximius wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Issue Tether (it is issued, not mined), trade Tether for Bitcoin, BTC price in Tethers increases, due to stated and believed peg of Tether to USD, BTC raises in USD price due to arbitrage executioners. More details: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4129543-bitcoin-one-way-go-...

How is it issued exactly? Practically and technically speaking. What is the process?

I haven't read the whitepaper. But Ripple and Dash are similarly centralized I believe.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#95

Post by [deleted] »

Kiro wrote: post #62
kristopolous wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, this is about general markets however. I've been trading BTC since 2011. Doesn't matter if it's tulip bulbs, baseball cards, bitcoins, houses, or dotcom companies, markets operate on similar principles and talking about the market dynamics doesn't say anything about the asset in question. Cryptocurrency is a viable means of exchange and the technology is great and all but that doesn't change the rules or mech…

I disagree. You can't apply regular market theories on Bitcoin. The world hasn't experienced this before and it will open up a whole new field of economics. In 10 years you'll see that I'm right.

[deleted]

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#96

Post by cantrip »

michaelchisari wrote: post #35
cantrip wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tether are, ostensibly, backed by $1 in a bank somewhere. Having a dollar token is very useful, since you can move in and out of crypto trading positions into a stable store of value, good old USD. Converting to real money takes a long time so you can't react to the market, and is also taxable and often has other fees on top.

> backed by $1 in a bank somewhere. Are we sure about this?

Yeah you took out the word ostensibly when you quoted me.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#97

Post by eximius »

StavrosK wrote: post #69
samsonradu wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Failing to understand how you could peg Tether to the USD and have people believe you. I was under the impression that pegging to a currency is something only a very big player, with close to unlimited resources can achieve, see People's Bank of China, Swiss Bank etc. Among others, you have to defend the currency against speculators and that requires a lot of capital. Even the Bank of England failed to maintain the p…

You can peg tether to the usd simply by offering to always exchange one tether for one usd and vice versa, no?

They do, with the caveat that they are not legally required to do so and there are documented cases of them declining to do so for large orders.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#98

Post by samsonradu »

tehlike wrote: post #80
StavrosK wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can peg tether to the usd simply by offering to always exchange one tether for one usd and vice versa, no?

The problem is, sonfar they issued north of 800m with no proof of reserves, and no professional audit to support their claims.

That s the thing I don’t get, how do they “issue” tether? Because if one says they peg it to the dollar then it must follow the dollar’s inflation. Otherwise somebody is at a loss because there s more tether value than usd or viceversa, even if they were fully transparent and fair.

Edit

Unless of course tether is not a store of value in any way and just a fancy name for a dollar.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#99

Post by tehlike »

samsonradu wrote: post #98
tehlike wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is, sonfar they issued north of 800m with no proof of reserves, and no professional audit to support their claims.

That s the thing I don’t get, how do they “issue” tether? Because if one says they peg it to the dollar then it must follow the dollar’s inflation. Otherwise somebody is at a loss because there s more tether value than usd or viceversa, even if they were fully transparent and fair. Edit Unless of course tether is not a store of value in any way and just a fancy name for a dollar.

The way it works is, i go to exchange a, and tell them hey i have this cryptocurrency and i have enough cash to back it up. People can withdraw money from me using these.

If you do not verify my claims, you think this is a great idea, because now you can transact with usd(t). Formally these exchanges only used cross-coin exchanges.

Now this is not a problem as long as you have _enough_ money to support withdrawals on an ongoing basis. Nobody knows you dont have enough cash to support all issued tokens, because seemingly, everything works nicely. With the recent hype, money keeps flowing. Until a mass withdrawal happens.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#100

Post by exclusiv »

tehlike wrote: post #77
exclusiv wrote: post #76

Bitcoin succeeding is a very bad thing for the banking cartel. Is it possible that some big powers are ramping it up so they can crash it violently?

Every crash is followed by another rise. The idea is out. Bitcoin may die, but another will thrive.

Perhaps, but an epic crash of the most well-known brand, a death spiral in investor confidence and the ensuing media reports would kill not only Bitcoin but potentially any other cryptocurrencies. Legislation could follow to block or at least pigeonhole any other crypocurrencies into a really niche market.
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