Very good points. I hadn't considered the BTC that they keep on trades. I wonder if they sell some of this BTC at certain threshholds, such that they are constantly converting to fiat?
Not too big to fail in the US banking sense, where it would tumble a house of cards with global repercussions. However, I think it would do a lot of damage to the Bitcoin economy: other exchanges, Silk Road, Bitcoin gambling sites, various Bitcoin startups, those with serious money tied up in BTC.
It's entirely possible that they're fulfilling some of the orders out of their wallet, but at a max of 0.6%, if they're never going the other way (fulfilling BTC orders with fiat), that'd get exhausted pretty quickly.
It's entirely possible that they're fulfilling some of the orders out of their wallet, but at a max of 0.6%, if they're never going the other way (fulfilling BTC orders with fiat), that'd get exhausted pretty quickly.