BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem Arrested for Alleged Money Laundering

I wonder if this will affect the Bitcoin exchange or interest in any way. What are your thoughts about this recent news release?

http://business.time.com/2014/01/27...-shrem-arrested-for-alleged-money-laundering/

 

It's why the price dropped 10-15% today. That said, I think the drop was an overreaction as this didn't really give any new information or represent a change in the US's attitude towards BTC.

 

BTC is taken like a type of Drug money now, as almost 80% of it was found on Silkroad and such, its untraceable, what do you expect people to do with it.

 

I kindof tl;dr'd the article, but when reading the last paragraph it's pretty obvious nobody knows the answer to this question:

Did the guy launder money for himself, or did the company launder money.
If he's laundered money for himself, it's probably not going to be a big deal. If the company is doing so, we may have ourselves a bit of trouble..

 

Didn't even read the article but that's something that I really hate about bitcoin, it's so speculative that anything that makes the news can drastically throw the price around. Its a currency, what do people expect? Yes, it can be laundered. Yes, it can be stolen. Yes, it can be used to buy drugs, etc..

That doesn't make it bad, but of course its going to share the same characteristics as other currencies.

 

Here's s little timeline on news from yesterday:



As the price is almost back to 'normal' we can conclude there was an overreaction on the market. Two potential bad news articles came out quickly after each other which brought the 'panic' trigger into the game.

Also keep in mind people are watching the charts closely due to the whole China thing. A panic reaction will be more likely in these days. Also you've to people like me who're trying to ride the waves for some fee coins.

Cheers!

 

Speculators tactfully use news such as this to manipulate the market. Happened when the Cyprus incident happened last year, happened when the news broke a while back about China preventing financial institutions from dealing with cryptos, it will happen again.

It'll get resolved, BitInstant is just one player of many.

 

Xeno, while there is some truth to that, you are comparing different news articles as if they are equal. China banning Bitcoin from financial institutions has obvious major impact on the market, it cuts off over half the current volume from doing business. Some guy getting arrested for an old exchange platform which is no longer even transacting is obviously much less significant.