Bitcoin this week has seen a sleuth of media articles regarding Bitcoin euro volume:
ZDNet: Bitcoin safer than the euro?
Motherboard: With Euro Instability, Can Bitcoin Now Compete with Hard Currency?
BetaBeat: Bitcoin Gets a Boost From Euro Crisis
Business Insider: And Now Europeans Are Dumping Euros For Bitcoin
Sweet Vociferation: Euro fears boost virtual currency Bitcoin
Slashdot: With Euro Zone Problems, Bitcoin Experiencing Boost In Legitimacy
Financial Post: Euro fears boost virtual currency Bitcoin
I’ve been putting off saying anything due to dealing with the Bitcoinica issue, but this is too much.
Bitcoin euro volume has barely increased (if at all). The only thing that’s happened is that the euro has increased in price vs the dollar slightly.
This is a case of media organisations engaging in copy-cat cut and paste story writing without fact checking. I believe the stories are wrong.
Also remember Betteridge’s Law of Headlines:
Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word ‘no’
Euro volume:
Sounds like a noticeable increase IMO. Look at how much more stable the volume was before June, while now it is finally rising.
looks to me that there is a liquidity problem going on with bitcoins. sellers arent selling as they see the price rising into the weekend. should be a good correction coming up sometime soon.
And I thought the upcoming election in Greece would be a good explanation for the rally. They do have reasons to believe that they will have the Drachme back within 2 months or so. If I were Greek, I’d certainly not keep any money on an account within reach of the Greek government.
It’s hard to believe that this did not have any effect at all. I mean, 1000 Greeks buying 100 Bitcoin each would explain the rally.
Good post, Amir. Volume has definitely increased in euro/BTC “news articles.” Sad to see BetaBeat on the list.
It has really increased quite a lot compared to March, April and May volumes, just look at the graph more closely (last 3 months for example). On you graph you have just 2 columns for June, one of which is not complete yet. So please don’t lie again Amir
also if you take a look at http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/ mtgoxEUR 30 days volume has gone up above 70k (it was below 60k just couple of days ago) and now it has more volume than mtgoxGBP which stayed at 60k volume.
« This is a case of media organisations engaging in copy-cat cut and paste story writing without fact checking. »
I agree.
Mass media is really a joke. They do nothing but copying one another.
The news orgs had competing interests. They love to bash bitcoin, but they also like to bash the euro. In this case bitcoin won.
lmao
You accuse the media of bad reporting and then base YOUR “in-depth” analysis on results of a single exchange… which is in fact showing a significant uptick over 20k in the week of Jun 1 — the highest value since last october. And the highest value during a rising market on the whole chart.
I think you are looking at the wrong chart. Eventhough MtGox is the biggest market, the market that does give testimony for the surge of btc/eur volume and price is Intersango, which is the market established in Europe and the one i think that most European people would use. Here is the chart for 4 months so that you see what i mean… http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/intrsngEUR#rg120zigHourlyztgSzm1g10zm2g25zv
It’s the same with oil and Gold, these things are not going up in Price so much as the purchasing power of our fiat currencies are being devalued.
If you do a little thought experiment, you can imagine a quarter dollar today is worth approx £5, that would buy maybe 5 loaves of bread.
6000 Yrs ago, a similar sized silver coin would have bought roughly the same amount. the True worth of Precious materials remains (relatively) constant,it is the purchasing power of Govt issue Currency that diminishes, with the result that ‘prices’ appear to go up. Ron Paul gives a good explanation here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFrJvMWMdLY
I agree that there is and will be more increase in the EUR volume BECAUSE of these articles than there was before. However you’re underestimating the EUR volume increase by a large factor.
The volume of Mt. Gox EUR is not significantly larger than the other Euro markets so only taking into account Gox is ridiculous. Mt. Gox is a much worse platform for Europeans than the alternatives because they require verifications for SEPA transfers. And they’ve had a lot of problems with SEPA in the past.
The numbers are as follows, the last 30 days of trading compared to the average 30 days of last 6 months. Based on EUR volume.
These numbers are approximations based on quick calculations. I added Bitstamp because a lot of Europeans use it even though it uses USD.
Mt. Gox EUR: +20%
Bitcoin.de: +50%
Intersango EUR: +80%
Bitstamp USD: +100%
The volumes have been WAY up for months for Euros. Mt. Gox USD has been going down but it’s difficult to say how much of that is related to this.
As a sidenote BTC-E is +100% and that one is used by a lot of Russians. Russia is not in the Euro so that’s not directly related to this, but anyway.
The funny thing about all of this is that Intersango EUR is not that much smaller than Mt. Gox EUR in terms of recent volume, and Intersango EUR has increased its volume massively. You are part of the team who RUNS Intersango and you were not aware of this?
how ironic. to make a point Amir puts up a chart of Gox vs. Intersango. and to top it off, the volumes HAVE increased.
i thought Amir was pro-Bitcoin?
Right, it is almost like he went out of his way to find data that supported a conclusion, such that anyone refuting his point would be giving free advertising and support to genjix’s company.
Bizarre approach, but probably effective.
Come on, people. This whole thing is hilarious compared to what Chase loses on a single day of rounding errors……errrr, I mean trading.
I do agree that the articles have been over the top. Bitcoins are being bought increasingly in Europe but it’s still very, very marginal compared to other safe haven assets.
Still I think that those articles are making people think. Which is good. I just hope that it doesn’t attract the get-rich-quick type, which it did last year.
Bitcoin needs more buyers and a larger market cap desperately to be honest. No one with serious money can enter the market right now, it’s simply impossible. There is no liquidity. One would only cause a massive slippage and a rocketing price that would lead to a bubble.
We need more buyers but at the same time we need buyers that buy bitcoins for the right reasons. I feel that it has been getting better though. Bitcoin is taken more seriously and it is slowly but surely, with the passing of time, becoming a serious asset. There is still a long road but we’re advancing.
The volume would be greater if there was better liquidity. Right now there is a 3% premium for buying BTC with EUR (or GBP) versus what those BTCs can be sold for in USDs. (Or the other way around, anyone who wants GBPs or EURs and has USDs can buy BTCs at Mt. Gox, and then sell those for GBPs or EURs and get these funds at a discount, about 97 cents on the dollar.
Arbitrageurs are doing it but the there aren’t enough of them to eliminate the market inefficiencies.
– http://nyse-group.de/bitcoin-arbitrage
I noticed that too.
I also noticed that you’re going to FISL.
Mark my words, the hottest chicks in Brazil are in Porto Alegre – RS, lucky bastard.
“Bitcoin this week has seen a sleuth of media articles”
I think you mean “slew” (A large number or quantity of something: “he asked me a slew of questions”) not “sleuth” (A detective).
Interesting article at the time but not so much exaggerated anymore. BTC has risen lots since this article.