But maybe that's an unfair assessment.
(6:39:17 PM) *Blitzboom*: http://gigaom.com/2013/08/19/feds-seized-2-9m-in-bitcoin-funds-from-mt-gox-court-docs-show/
(6:39:59 PM) *Blitzboom*: MagicalTux: good thing we hear this from the media, and not you guys
(6:40:13 PM) *Blitzboom*: now everybody is going to be very calm about this i'm sure
(6:41:55 PM) *Blitzboom*: though i'm sure mtgox has at least 29k BTC even if it didn't have the cash
(6:42:01 PM) *AnonX*: god
(6:42:56 PM) *AnonX*: Reminds me of when the DOJ cracked down on online poker
(6:45:36 PM) *Blitzboom*: MagicalTux: can we hear something substantial now on this?
(6:45:40 PM) *Blitzboom*: cat's out of the bag
(6:45:43 PM) *Blitzboom*: do you have the money or no
(6:46:43 PM) *Blitzboom*: i mean, if you said you have 90% of the money you owe, then even that would be an improvement to the current spread if it's to be believed
(6:46:51 PM) *Blitzboom*: that would be only 10% spread
(6:46:55 PM) *MagicalTux*: Blitzboom: we cannot comment on this
(6:47:10 PM) *Blitzboom*: you can't comment on whether or not you are solvent?
(6:47:21 PM) *MagicalTux*: We can't comment on the legal actions in the US
(6:47:28 PM) *dust-otc*: MagicalTux: as in, compelled by the government not to comment, or advised by your own lawyers not to comment?
(6:47:32 PM) *Blitzboom*: can you comment on your solvency?
(6:47:53 PM) *dust-otc*: Blitzboom: Roger Ver can comment on solvency, apparently
(6:47:53 PM) *Blitzboom*: can you pay out the people you owe?
(6:47:54 PM) *MagicalTux*: I could comment on the fact that our income since April is around 8 million USD
(6:48:14 PM) *MagicalTux*: (anyone seeing trading volume can compute that one)
(6:48:31 PM) *Blitzboom*: all i'm asking is, do you have the money to pay everyone's balance?
(6:48:38 PM) *dust-otc*: MagicalTux: no, they could estimate your revenue, not income
(6:49:02 PM) *MagicalTux*: dust-otc: our transparency reports show the costs of running mtgox, and it hasn't changed muchThe last withdrawal I executed from MtGox (1000 EUR in April) took 3 months to be done (saw the money hit my bank account in July). MtGox was apologetic in support ticket I filed, but did not explain why it took so long other than they had "issues".
Elsewhere MtGox employees have explained that their bank has limited them to 10 international wire transfers per day due to capacity issues - they claim at one point they were responsible for 50% of the international wire transfers of their bank, the second largest in Japan. Apparently international wire transfers aren't very popular in Japans o they're all processed manually, which doesn't scale to what MtGox are doing.
This isn't relevant if you do the following:
1) Transfer USD to Bitstamp from your bank account 2) Buy BTC with your USD on Bitstamp 3) Transfer BTC to Mt. Gox 4) Sell BTC for either EUR or USD on Mt. Gox 5) Transfer EUR/USD to your bank account
In this scenario you are only exposed to exchange rate risk from the time it takes you to transfer BTC from Bitstamp to Mt. Gox and sell it (I think Mt. Gox requires 6 confirmations, so that's - on average - less than an hour currently).
As I see it the largest risk is Mt. Gox defaulting on its USD or EUR obligations, in which case you'll lose everything.