
As Bitcoin nears $700, Coinbase out of coins to sell - johnyzee
From coinbase.com:<p>&quot;Due to higher than normal buy volumes, we are unable to provide exact price quotes right now.<p>Instead of pausing buys entirely, we decided to give people the option to purchase bitcoin at the market price in a few days. Once your USD funds arrive, we will exchange them to bitcoin at the market price at approximately Friday Nov 22, 2013 at 07:56AM PST.<p>Note that you can cancel your order at any time up until your bitcoin arrive from the transfer history page.<p>The market price of bitcoin changes frequently. Below are some recent prices to give you an idea. These do not guarantee what the price will be in a few days.&quot;
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jscheel
I'm pretty sure I have a wallet that I dumped a couple of bucks into when
bitcoin was first starting out. Problem is, I have no clue where it might be,
or even what computer it might be on. Laaaame.

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bru
I did the same at the time. I know in which computer mine is. But I know I
trashed that computer not long after...

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Ascendency
There should be a bitcoin recovery service, those coins could be worth serious
amounts of money, now.

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makomk
It's not that they've run out of coins to sell, it's that by the time the
transaction completes they'll potentially be selling the Bitcoins for far less
than they're worth - it's an artifact of Coinbase's business model. (Part of
the problem IIRC is that people can back out of transactions after Coinbase
have quoted them a price, meaning they can make a profit from a rising market
at Coinbase's expense.) Same happened last time a bubble blew up in the
Bitcoin price.

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DonGateley
The 30 day delay in effect at the time I bought at $125 to test my first use
of the system is the only reason I have three Bitcoin instead of 20. By the
time I was approved for quicker purchase the booster rocket had kicked in and
I simply couldn't believe the price increase to $200 could last. Ah, well.
Story of my life.

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doggy
Based on the huge discrepancy between the supply of bitcoin (which is
algorithmically regulated) and the demand (China, institutional investors,
etc), some have predicted that the price of Bitcoin will increase to between
$500,000 and $5,000,000 per unit within a three-year time frame. Whether this
will happen or not, only time will tell. But what its telling us now is that
Bitcoin has already increased 50x over the last 12 month.

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emrikol
I've splurged on tiny things and donations over the years with my old CPU-
mined bitcoins. I'd completely forgotten about my wallet until things started
getting crazy at $300 a week or so ago (was it that short?).

I was lucky enough to find 1.02BTC still sitting there, and now I can only
hope that I can get Coinbase to verify my bank account before anything pops.

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wuliwong
I too have the feeling that this is the peak but when I think about why, I
don't have any reason other than this is the highest price to date. With a
relatively small total valuation you're susceptible high volatility. Bitcoin
has had lots of peaks and valleys but over its brief history. But, the peaks
have always been higher than the valleys. Is there any reason to suspect this
trend to stop? I think the underlying driving force for the overall increae in
valuation is the adoption of bitcoin as currency. As far as I can tell, this
is increasing pretty rapidly and will most likely continue increaseing.

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sliverstorm
Where has it been nearing $700? [https://btc-e.com/](https://btc-e.com/)
reports a high of $595

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mrb
btcchina.com - high of $801 (¥4879)! See
[http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/](http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/)

Also coinbase.com - high of $660 a few hours ago

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pbhjpbhj
This kinda suggests there is a huge arbitrage potential, no?

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mrb
Yes. And there are people who make a living off arbitraging Bitcoin exchanges.

The usual arbitrage risks apply here: the Bitcoin exchange rate might vary
during the time it takes to wire money in and out of various exchanges.

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gphil
I just sold my pet Bitcoin that I bought for $80 a while back. This is getting
crazy, I wonder who the buyers are?

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triptychs
Saw it at $600 today and sold mine too. Made enough to pay rent, not to
mention the other odd things I've gotten with my BTC over the past 2 years...
it was fun, but I think I'm done with it.

I'd also like to know who is buying IN at this point. Anyone on HN have some
insight?

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BlackDeath3
I bought about a week ago. Of course, it was at $315 then, not ~$600. I'd like
to buy more, but I'm not made of money.

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TrainedMonkey
If I were you I would be very carefully looking at who is buying those things.
If there is no large institutional holder or significant amount of new users -
current bubble is another speculative bubble (who could have guessed?).

TL:DR bitcoin always went through successively larger bubbles. Without very
hard evidence I would believe that current price is result of bubble as well.
Also, is there a reliable way to short bitcoins?

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wuliwong
What does "result of a bubble" mean?

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TrainedMonkey
Means people are buying bitcoins not for their inherent value, but rather in
order to sell them later at a higher price. When this happens everyone is
waiting until value top's off. Sooner or later moment comes when some portion
of holders decides to sell. Other people see price dropping and try to sell
their bitcoins as well causing bubble to burst and price to drop
significantly.

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altero
Perhaps it is time to roll out alternative crypto-currency. Bitcoin has way
too much attention and speculation.

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d0ugie
so.. you think much less liquidity and turnover in a currency will help
solidify its value (and keep the bid/ask spread tight)?

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BlackDeath3
You can cancel on Coinbase? Why was I never able to find this option?

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andreipop
Is anyone operating a reliable bitcoin options market?

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simplemath
bitfinex

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lupinglade
Anyone want to sell me 1 BTC over PayPal? Its really hard for us Canadians to
purchase bitcoin here :( The hoops are ridiculous.

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narcissus
Where exactly in Canada are you? Also, have you tried cavirtex.com?

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lupinglade
So, I called Cavirtex, and they put you on hold saying there are 6 people in
line then you just get a fixed voice mail anyway. Apparently there aren't any
real phone reps at cavirtex. Disappointing.

