Bitcoin price plummets following FBI seizure of Silk Road

David Tom

Posts: 149   +3

bitcoin fbi silk road cryptocurrency mt.gox drug trade

Yesterday we learned that the FBI seized the underground drug market known as Silk Road, after arresting the suspected owner of the online initiative, 29-year old Ross Ulbricht.

One of the more appealing aspects of Silk Road was its reliance on the virtual currency Bitcoin. After all, Bitcoin is known to be an unregulated currency that allows both the sender and receiver of funds to remain anonymous; two qualities that make it ideal for criminal activity. Not surprisingly, the online drug empire conducted more than $1.2 billion worth of business between February 2011 and July 2013, making it the single largest source behind Bitcoin transactions.

Now that Silk Road has been shut down, many are speculating the future of Bitcoin. Following the news of the FBI seizure, the cost of a single Bitcoin plummeted from approximately $130 to $85; all of which occurred in just a three hour span marked by unusually high trade volumes. At this point in time, the price has rebounded to $111.55, indicating that the initial fluctuation might not be as serious as it originally appeared.

Not only did the closure of Silk Road make the future of Bitcoin an uncertainty, but it resulted in the freezing of over $3 million of the virtual currency. Approximately 26,000 Bitcoins that were sitting in Silk Road user accounts are now inaccessible, striking up plenty of anger on the Silk Road forums. According to The Verge, one particular user named prophexy, protested, “I am DEVASTATED that SR is permanently down! But what happens to the amount of Bitcoins I had in my wallet?!?! Where the fuck did they go?!?”

This highlights a major problem in the Bitcoin model. The main attraction of the cryptocurrency is that it’s essentially untraceable; however this hasn’t deterred the government from determining that there were exactly “146,946 unique buyer accounts and 3,877 unique seller accounts” on Silk Road over a a span of five and a half months. It also hasn’t stopped them from freezing personal accounts on both Silk Road and Mt. Gox, the most popular Bitcoin marketplace.

It’ll be interesting to see how the virtual currency fares without arguably its most lucrative trading platform.

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“I am DEVASTATED that SR is permanently down! But what happens to the amount of Bitcoins I had in my wallet?!?! Where the **** did they go?!?”
Thats what happens when you gamble in unregulated and unsupervised currency. This fellow should be pissed at himself not the fact that Silk Road was shut down.

Edit: I am baffled why words in my quoted comment are filtered but yet allowed in the original article.
 
It?ll be interesting to see how the virtual currency fares without arguably its most lucrative trading platform.

Bitcoins will probably be used on whatever takes Silk Road's place. Something will come along to replace SR because there's a demand for it. Where there's demand, a product or service will follow.

As for the drop in price, that's sounds like a reaction because of uncertainty. The same thing happens in other markets... when something occurs that makes the future unknown (like a natural disaster or something like Syria - not something silly like a govt shutdown) usually stocks go down and gold goes up. People want less exposure until they know it's safe to stay invested.
 
Thats what happens when you gamble in unregulated and unsupervised currency. This fellow should be pissed at himself not the fact that Silk Road was shut down.
Edit: I am baffled why words in my quoted comment are filtered but yet allowed in the original article.

So this regulated supervised currency aka US Dollar didn't just have to bail out the banks because this regulated supervised currency didn't just pretty much end a few years ago?

Also the price went down because the US Government sold all those bitcoins to profit on taking down the site which lets be honest was bound to happen.
 
So this regulated supervised currency aka US Dollar didn't just have to bail out the banks because this regulated supervised currency didn't just pretty much end a few years ago?
What ever that means.

The guy seems to have lost coins and was not involved. He wasn't complaining about the value of the coin, he was complaining about the number of coins that were taken out of his account. I don't know about you but my bank account does not get lower, every time someone gets arrested and their valuables seized.
 
What ever that means.

The guy seems to have lost coins and was not involved. He wasn't complaining about the value of the coin, he was complaining about the number of coins that were taken out of his account. I don't know about you but my bank account does not get lower, every time someone gets arrested and their valuables seized.

So how did he loose coins? if the price changes and he still has the same amount of coins then he lost nothing. But if the US banks didn't get bailed out then what would happen to all that money in everyone's accounts would they stay or would they disappear and would US dollars be worth anything... hmm thats hard to answer isn't it seeing as it nearly did happen I'm pretty sure you bank account wouldn't exist if the us government didn't do the bailout. :)
 
I'm gonna have to drop out. I don't see how you can possibly use that as an argument. That is like complaining about your car being smashed when you don't have insurance. But yet there is always an off chance the insurance company you are with could go belly up anytime. Which would you rather take, no protection or protection for as long as there is a system guaranteeing it?

By the way you seem to be going out of your way not to interpret it was the coins lost not the value of the coins the guy was complaining about. If the bitcoin system was protected, there would not have been any loss. We are talking about an individual account not a continental wide fallout. I make a comment about a guy bitching from making a bad investment, and you bring up the possibility that everyone makes the same bad investment daily.
 
So, does this mean the FBI has hacked the Tor browser? Does this mean that Bitcoins are a bad investment? I I still think an unused back bedroom and a grow light, are the best hedge against this type Bitcoin deflation.

This is a tragedy though. It's getting harder and harder to sell illegal drugs on the internet. Not to mention the fact the FBI has begun to seize play money the same as if it were real money
So how did he loose coins? if the price changes and he still has the same amount of coins then he lost nothing.
OK, so if each coin goes down in value, and he still has the same amount of coins, you have LOST money. Unless this is some sort of crap hole new math you've managed to delude yourself into believing. Try looking up "exchange rate", and get back to us, will ya?
 
So, does this mean the FBI has hacked the Tor browser? Does this mean that Bitcoins are a bad investment? I I still think an unused back bedroom and a grow light, are the best hedge against this type Bitcoin deflation.

This is a tragedy though. It's getting harder and harder to sell illegal drugs on the internet. Not to mention the fact the FBI has begun to seize play money the same as if it were real money
So how did he loose coins? if the price changes and he still has the same amount of coins then he lost nothing.
OK, so if each coin goes down in value, and he still has the same amount of coins, you have LOST money. Unless this is some sort of crap hole new math you've managed to delude yourself into believing. Try looking up "exchange rate", and get back to us, will ya?
If anything it would be the centralized corrupt fed reserve notes that should be called play money...their both fiat currency difference is bit coins aren't controlled by any corrupt bank and are backed by encryption technologies. Not the word of the evilest people in the world. Bitcoins aren't a bad investment, I made 400$ off of them you just need to know when to buy and when to sell. I just happened to sell mine a few weeks ago before it collapsed and it turned out to work just fine.
 
Bitcoins aren't a bad investment, I made 400$ off of them you just need to know when to buy and when to sell.
I wonder if the people who bought them from you are just as happy with their investment.
 
The sad part is that its less about the bitcoins and more about ppl not getting their product illegally. I dont subscribe to any of the forums that ppl who got busted by this sting post on so I cant really say HOW the closure of the silk road is going to effect any one individual. I can say as someone who has had to deal with family members with addiction issues, that taking this site down will more then likely cause a cascade of poor choices from the ex-users of the SR.
As for Bitcoins and the associated issues, all I can say is that they chose to use this medium for their illegal activites. They probably never considered that their actions could affect the prices. More then likely they never thought they would get caught. Its a prevailing failing on the criminal mindset. Its about NOW and no thought is EVER given to the future.
 
The sad part is that its less about the bitcoins and more about ppl not getting their product illegally. I dont subscribe to any of the forums that ppl who got busted by this sting post on so I cant really say HOW the closure of the silk road is going to effect any one individual.
Then I guess you'll have to send your poor, hapless, relatives over to "my block", and let them see the 'rewards' of their addictions, up close and personal. Let them live in a abandoned house with no utilities, instead of pissing away the family fortune in comfort behind a computer keyboard. Let them stop by and negotiate with genuine ghetto psychopaths, instead of thinking they're rock stars, who have "assistants" to cop for them. It's what's known as a "reality check". A the end of the day, I'd bet your candy a** relations, would opt for rehab.

If anything it would be the centralized corrupt fed reserve notes that should be called play money...their both fiat currency difference is bit coins aren't controlled by any corrupt bank and are backed by encryption technologies. Not the word of the evilest people in the world. Bitcoins aren't a bad investment, I made 400$ off of them you just need to know when to buy and when to sell. I just happened to sell mine a few weeks ago before it collapsed and it turned out to work just fine.
Yet oddly enough, you're forced to calculate your profits in United States Dollars. Rather ironic, the need to make a comparison to A-(nother), "worthless currency", wouldn't you say?
 
Bitcoins are back to $120-140. Temporary blip.

Also, don't leave coins on 3rd party sites (ie SR or even Mt. Gox). Keep your coins in your wallet.

And I seriously doubt the feds sold a single coin. For two reasons, they are evidence and they have no value to the feds. You can count those coins as dead. That many less bitcoins to use in the future since Bitcoins have a set number of coins going to be generated.
 
@Capt.

Oh I agree with the sentiment of your post in the fact that these children of today HAVE NO IDEA how it was done in the past. They think the internet offers them protections against the ravages of addiction. Its a buffer I agree, but the reality is that in order to be shady you have to go to some "dark" places. They were doing this online, which gave them the illusion of control.
As I said before, it sad. I can remember sewing up a cousin one time because he got robbed for his herb. Someone slashed him for roughly $40 of weed. When they actually caught the "gentleman" in question, his reason was that he needed the money and didnt want to give up his weed. I use this to show that "back in the day" we didnt have cellphones or pagers or the web to insulate us. No it was all down and dirty and as quick as could be.
My favorite addiction story was hearing how a uncle got busted in a gas station because he was dropping little packages of a white substance out of his pants as he was walking into the gas station to pay for gas after having to meet the dealer there and waiting for six hours AT THAT GAS STATION!!!
The internet is amusing, but the taking of the Silk Road means that these children get to experience events such as I described.
Im just wondering if BitCoin is going to get ANY backlash from this. If the govt grabs all those coins and from the sounds of it, it was a lot, since its virtual currency will they cash it out into real life money while the market is high. I bring this up only because of the RICO act. Does anyone think that BitCoin is going to have to change their model to make the information MORE accessable to the authorities? According to RICO and multiple federal laws, isnt BitCoin just as liable for the purchases that their "LIMITED AND CONTROLLED" currancy facilitated? Yes it anon but not as anon as REAL cash. It would be like someone money laundering. Buy some BitCoins, buy drugs, sell some drugs, sell BitCoins.
 
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