Ask HN: It used to be that when stocks fall, Bitcoin goes up. What happened? - traviagio
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Kinnard
There are too many factors to tease out what's going on at any given moment.
There may be upward pressure from what's happening in equity markets and
demand for bitcoin as a vehicle currency[1] to get ether, and there may be
downward pressure because of a possible hard fork as well as the outage of a
major exchange.

If you really knew what caused what with the bitcoin price, that'd be really
special information and you'd be a very special person.

You can make your best guesses as to which forces will dominate. And you can
be wrong.

These dynamics change as the scope changes.

[1]
[http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_vehicle_currency](http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_vehicle_currency)

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davidgerard
Bitcoin is so thinly traded that it's hard to say anything useful on price
movements and outside events.

Look at the spam attack - Bitcoin was all but unusable, and the price went
_up_.

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T-A
This? [http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-slumps-following-
bitfi...](http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-slumps-following-bitfinex-
outage/)

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traviagio
I am not talking about a temporary flashcrash. People used to think of Bitcoin
as a safe heaven when else goes downhill. Just like gold. I don't think that's
the case anymore.

~~~
vectorpush
> _People used to think of Bitcoin as a safe heaven when else goes downhill_

I don't really think this is true. There might be some bitcoin enthusiasts who
hold this view, but I haven't seen any evidence of this belief in the wider
finance community.

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bbcbasic
I thought bitcoin went up on hype, down on fear. Opening up China markets, for
example pushed the price up to over $1000. Then that hype died, along with
MtGox and here we are.

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davidgerard
> Opening up China markets, for example pushed the price up to over $1000.

I thought it was pretty established that (a) that was Willybot (b) there was
no exchange you could actually get dollars out (so, not Mt. Gox) of where the
price was over $1000.

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Phlarp
(a) seems to be the generally accepted reason behind the runup to $1200 but
(b) is patently false. I sold coins on coinbase and mtgox during this period
and received deposits of USD within the week. The amounts were all below the
six figure mark, so perhaps there were individuals with million dollar or more
holdings that had issues finding instant liquidity. However, I imagine this is
true of almost all assets of comparable size.

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davidgerard
When were you getting money out of Mt Gox up to?

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Phlarp
I cashed out all of my bitcoin holdings during the boom times so I can't speak
for anything past October of 2013, but I believe Gox was still cashing out to
USD until mid December or so(?) and Yen for a few weeks past that.

Honestly, anybody that left USD or BTC funds in Gox wallets for longer than a
day deserved to lose them at that point in time. All the reasons were known
then just as they are now-- if you don't personally hold and secure the
private key, you don't actually own bitcoin. If you can't handle securing it
(both from theft and loss) you shouldn't participate in the market as a
speculator.

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davidgerard
yeah, that accords with other reports I've heard - that you could still get
USD out of Mt. Gox up to October and past that it was a bit iffy.

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aminorex
Andresen and Hearn are forking the blockchain. The future of bitcoin thus
becomes clouded.

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deciplex
Perhaps we have finally found the one thing that, apparently, is not good for
Bitcoin.

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ant6n
Gold was also down today.

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Falkon1313
Silver and gold both seem to be dropping lower than they've been in years.
Legend has it that when stocks go down, precious metals should go up. But what
if gold, silver, and stocks were all in a bubble at once? They all kind of
look bubbly by the long-term charts. Would that signify that we're finally
reaching the end of the recession, or that we're beginning a new one?

