The Feds Are Ready To Sell $25 Million of Bitcoin Seized From The Silk Road

No. Someone has to take the other side of that trade. Typically, a brokerage will loan you shares to sell short, and then you buy them back to pay back the loan. If nobody will loan you bitcoins, you can't sell them short.

Re: The Feds Are Ready To Sell $25 Million of Bitcoin Seized From The Silk Road

#5

Post by TrainedMonkey » Thu, Jan 16, 2014, 11:53 PM UTC

philip1209 wrote: post #3

Based on bitcoin architecture, is it possible to short Bitcoin directly?

It is not possible to short anything directly. Only direct actions are to buy and sell.

Options are derivative products that other people offer. They looks at statistical volatility and price their options, such that they make some $ on average. This means you can short bitcoin, just like anything else - you need to find someone offering the service.

Re: The Feds Are Ready To Sell $25 Million of Bitcoin Seized From The Silk Road

#6

Post by jrockway » Thu, Jan 16, 2014, 11:54 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #2

So that will depress the price right? Time for some cheap BTC

I honestly don't think the Bitcoin market is sophisticated enough to react to events like this. Certainly, if the feds really want to sell and someone puts $0.01 on the order books for that size of a trade, and nobody else is around, it could be filled, but I don't see that happening.

Re: The Feds Are Ready To Sell $25 Million of Bitcoin Seized From The Silk Road

#7

Post by sandieman » Thu, Jan 16, 2014, 11:56 PM UTC

Is this an opportunity for financial firms?

Re: The Feds Are Ready To Sell $25 Million of Bitcoin Seized From The Silk Road

#8

Post by matthewsimon » Thu, Jan 16, 2014, 11:56 PM UTC

philip1209 wrote: post #3

Based on bitcoin architecture, is it possible to short Bitcoin directly?

There's no magical shorting mechanism -- you'd have to find a counterpart and enter into a futures contract. A few exchanges offer this as a service.

[0] http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/12/05/betting-against-bi...

Re: The Feds Are Ready To Sell $25 Million of Bitcoin Seized From The Silk Road

#9

Post by Alex3917 » Thu, Jan 16, 2014, 11:57 PM UTC

Great, so this will basically be a giant free handout to wall st because no one else will have enough money to bid on a block.

Re: The Feds Are Ready To Sell $25 Million of Bitcoin Seized From The Silk Road

#10

Post by viraptor » Thu, Jan 16, 2014, 11:58 PM UTC

> approximately $25 million worth of Bitcoin will be auctioned off soon

At least they won't sell it via usual exchanges in one go. That would make quite a mess... (bringing price down to ~0 for a while before everything rebalances)