[vectorpush]

I hope that the recipient intends to use those funds on the darknet or overstock.com, otherwise the fees for converting even a fraction of that sum into usable money will greatly exceed $0.04.

[scintill76]

In other words, dollars weren't actually moved, 217.5k BTC were. I like Bitcoin, but you're right, and I'm getting annoyed with Bitcoiners' self-congratulation over things like this. Moving millions isn't exactly an every-day problem for most people, and even in more realistic scenarios, network transaction fees aren't the only cost and are much smaller than the other costs.

[debacle]

Does bitcoin have the kind of volume/liquidity to make that kind of exchange without causing a significant disturbance in the exchange rate?

[nhayden]

No, it would cause a pretty big swing. Large sums like this are unlikely to be put on an exchange, though - they'd be done through a private sale.

[mrb]

You are misinformed. 217k BTC is only a fraction of the monthly volume traded on some of the largest exchanges: they trade 3-6 million BTC per month (http://bitcoinity.org/markets/list?currency=ALL&span=30d), so one could trade 217k spread over 30 days without causing swings. (Only if you did the trade at once, it would cause one sudden swing.)

[nhayden]

Dumping it all at once is what I had in mind.

[vectorpush]

Well, I wouldn't expect someone to try cashing out such a large sum at once. I assume they'd just cash out a few thousand here and there as needed.