For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins

Re:For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins by xchaotic on Monday November 17, 2014 @02:58PM (#8620124)

I'll keep an eye out for this. I think the final price will reach quite close to the market price with no guarantee of being able to sell at that price. Still might be worthwhile for someone to build up their position considerably without spooking the exchanges.

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Re:For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins by dkyc on Monday November 17, 2014 @03:06PM (#8620182)

Last time the US auctioned off bitcoins, the price was above market price [0]. A VC wanted to buy a large chunk of bitcoins for a company he invests in without driving up the price.

[0] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-01/bitcoin-auction-end...

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Re:For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins by rebel on Monday November 17, 2014 @03:17PM (#8620260)

I don't see anywhere in your cited article that says the coins were purchased for more than market price. Can you point it out for me?

Additionally, if you were a rational investor who believed the coins were worth above market price, why would you not additionally buy up any coins on the market that were selling below that price? Ultimately, bidding up the market price to whatever the "above-market" bid was.

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Re:For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins by nkuttler on Monday November 17, 2014 @03:52PM (#8620472)

For a rational investor it would make sense to bid above "market" price. There are many markets, and those markets have a limited volume of coin to sell. Buying 30k coins would have a big effect on the price of any single market.

Bitstamp, which says "world's leading bitcoin exchange" about itself can't sell you 30k coins right now. Oh, and bitcoin exchanges have a history of.. let's call it.. problems.

A rational investor who wants to buy a large volume of coins would certainly bid above "market" price for coins handled by a reputable seller.

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Re:For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins by rebel on Monday November 17, 2014 @04:03PM (#8620552)

You seem to have misread my post. I didn't say that no one would bid above market price, I stated that they would additionally buy up all the coins on the market below their buying price.

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Re:For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins by nitid_name on Monday November 17, 2014 @04:24PM (#8620697)

Wouldn't that risk driving up the market price of bitcoins, which leads to a higher competing bid on the bulk coins?

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Re:For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins by rebel on Monday November 17, 2014 @04:59PM (#8620926)

Well you wouldn't want to do it before the bids are in. However, there was a gap between when bids are placed and when the winner is announced, that would be a good time.

edit: Of course, any time after the bids were completed would be a good time. After the auction ends would be just as good for you.

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Re:For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins by nkuttler on Monday November 17, 2014 @04:10PM (#8620595)

Ah, you're right. But buying coin from different markets still has risks and takes time (which is money). Of course, it depends on your priorities.

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Re:For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins by dustcoin on Monday November 17, 2014 @03:18PM (#8620266)

Nothing in that article states that the coins were sold above market price. The only publicly known data points were some significantly below-market bids (<$500 when the market price was ~$600) that did not win.

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Re:For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins by pcthrowaway on Monday November 17, 2014 @07:06PM (#8621652)

There were some public statements by executives at several bitcoin exchanges who revealed their losing bids, and they were close to (but below) market price, so it's not unthinkable that the winning bids were for market price or above.

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Re:For Sale: 50,000 Bitcoins by martinko on Monday November 17, 2014 @03:04PM (#8620169)

The question is, where will the market price be by the auction date? This news mean that a substantial amount of money that may have otherwise been used to buy BTC on the open market will now go towards this purchase.

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