Bitcoin shoots past $150 today

https://bitfloor.com/market_data

by bluetooth • 13 years ago

39 49 13 years ago

bitfloor.com

chm4• 13 years ago

The CAD market is even more insane. It's hit $CAD 173.9 on http://cavirtex.com .

BrokenPipe• 13 years ago

In UK it is even worst, the equivalent of US $177, check on bitbargain.co.uk/buy or localbitcoins.com.

chm4• 13 years ago

Heh. I have tried to buy BTC for the past two days, but nobody was interested in selling at the last lowest ask price. On the Canadian exchange, it seems as if some people are controlling the market by buying and selling to themselves.

I understand that the ask prices are going up in part because of increased demand, but the constant ratcheting up of asks smells fishy.

ISL4• 13 years ago

If these things are true, why isn't someone making a killing in arbitrage?

Oculus• 13 years ago

This look eerily familiar to the NASDAQ in February/March of 2000. Plus there's no recent financial news to justify such a huge jump in value in such a short time.

This bubble will burst. It will burst soon and it will burn the people who just jumped in and bought the new mining-specific machines that recently came on the market.

ISL4• 13 years ago

"In the short term the market is a popularity contest; in the long term it is a weighing machine." - Buffett

If you'd like to hold BTC for 10-20 years, they may be quite cheap at the moment, as most of them have already been made. If you're looking for returns/stability/growth over the next six months, look out.

As a medium of exchange, the BTC is presently sub-par; it's just too volatile. I can't be certain that, if I exchange USD for BTC in a wallet on my phone, that it will be worth within 1% of what I paid by the time I walk to a store to spend it.

betterunix2• 13 years ago

"If you'd like to hold BTC for 10-20 years, they may be quite cheap at the moment, as most of them have already been made."

That fact that most have already been computed has little bearing on the future price of BTC. What matters in the future is whether or not people will actually use Bitcoin as a currency (it has no other use); I am still not convinced that it will ever become mainstream. I hear about all sorts of places that accept Bitcoin payments, but I have yet to see anything that matters -- I cannot buy diesel with it, I cannot pay rent with it, I cannot pay utility bills with it, my local supermarket does not take it, and I cannot pay taxes with it. Even for black market transactions (drugs, guns, etc.) Bitcoin is obscure; even with all the sales that happen on Silk Road, you are looking at a tiny fraction of the market for illegal drugs.

Bitcoin is in a very precarious position. Most of the cost of buying in is the result of speculation about its future use, which is fueled by the media coverage it receives on tech news sites. A lot of the hype is based on questionable assumptions about Bitcoin's security and about the lack of authorities in the system. Bitcoin's ability to survive when the hype dies down and the assumptions are challenged is doubtful, at least from where I sit.

miles2• 13 years ago

If you'd like to hold BTC for 10-20 years, they may be quite cheap at the moment, as most of them have already been made.

Just over half have been mined at this point:

http://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#How_are_new_bitcoins_created....

StavrosK3• 13 years ago

Welp, time to sell.

loceng• 13 years ago

I can imagine it's investor-minded people who are just trying to ride the wave. We'll know what the floor is at some point over and over again, which would be the only time to buy - unless society starts to distrust it - which might be good at least for keeping the investment-profit schemed people out.

StavrosK3• 13 years ago

Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, the floor is around $20ish.

gojomo• 13 years ago

You could have also said that 19 days ago, when it was at $50. Oh, look, someone did: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5397922

There seems a Sunday-Tuesday surge in prices, perhaps as people who learned they wanted some over the weekend in Asia-Europe-Americas get their funds in and make their purchases. So Tuesday may be a better time - I have a hunch it'll break $200 by then.

Still, as suggested in my downvoted reply to the above 'sell at $50' comment, $500 would be a better time for some profit-taking.

miles2• 13 years ago

Welp, time to sell.

The price two days later: $234. Up $84.

Required reading for prognosticators:

I'm Raising My Bitcoin Price Target To $400 http://www.businessinsider.com/im-raising-my-bitcoin-price-t...

StavrosK3• 13 years ago

Hindsight is 40/40.

impostervt• 13 years ago

Buyers keep entering the market. Mt. Gox is so inefficient at "approving" new users that it may actually be slowing down the crazy growth. Last I heard, there were over 9,000 people waiting to be approved on Mt. Gox.

dcc13• 13 years ago

Why in gods name would anyone want to use MtGox? Their verification requirements are ridiculous (they dont accept watermarked passport scan), why in gods name would anyone upload good document scans to what is essentially the money laundering arm of the Japanese Yakuza!

Aint the whole point of bitcoin is that one doesnt have to use centralised systems like Paypal who love to freeze your accounts, MtGox do the same now, they freeze an account until you "verify" which might take months if ever all while your bitcoins are sitting in their account

dangrossman2• 13 years ago

It takes days, not months, to get verified, and a cell phone camera picture of a drivers license and utility bill will go through fine.

imatworkyo2• 13 years ago

This is a serious problem, its got to have implications in game-theory.

It's better for 'ME' to join a tried and tested exchange. -but- It's better for bitcoins as a whole, for me to try one of the newer or lesser used exchanges.

Just why entry level jobs require such high requirements now a days - as a hiring manger, why take the risk on someone knew (even if someone took the risk on you during your youth in better times) - better to just hire someone with 3 years experience...if its a buyers market and supply outstrips demand.

zwtaylor• 13 years ago

New Mt. Gox users are reporting the verification queue to be at least 14,000.

http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/04/the-mtgox-verificati...

siscia• 13 years ago

You can say whatever you want about this bubble, but a couple of days ago it was around 100 $ who bought it 2 days ago now have earned the 50%... In 2 days... It is just crazy.

I can remember the HN post of "BitCoin just hit 10$" and I remember to say to my brother... Whooa that stuff really worth something, we should start mining it...

Plus if there is more than 9000 people waiting to buy more than 50.000 dollars of bitcoin, the price is gonna raise again... I might buy some...

incision• 13 years ago

I have some bitcoin that I've been sitting on for 2 years which I'd like to liquidate, but the spotty track record of bitcoin exchanges makes me wary of providing the kind of identifying/financial information that seems to be required.

verbalist2• 13 years ago

You could probably sell some in person if you live in a major metro area; for example if you're in SF I'll buy them off you today (in person).

btipling• 13 years ago

Why would you buy bit coin? What value does it have for you?

chm4• 13 years ago

Trade your bitcoins in FOREX markets (CAD or GBP) and you'll make more money.

heifetz• 13 years ago

it's $172 on mtgox, went up another $20 today. This is not a natural movement. This thing is a bubble that can pop any point, but at the same time, I won't be surprised if it goes to $1000 first. Like the .com bubble, you just hope that you can cash out before it crashes.

Bitcoin shoots past $150 today

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