
Originally Posted by
cmoney
I dont understand how the bid and the ask can be the same on these exchanges. How do they make money?
They do have a spread, so they make bank on every transaction.
As for the money, the exchange should never have exposure to the price of the bitcoins. Just like a currency exchange doesn't have exposure to the value of currencies.
The buyer of the bitcoins is giving the exchange the amount of US dollars (or whatever currency) that the seller of the bitcoins agreed to as per the trade. The exchange then passes that amount of currency over to the seller, minus their cut. They also ship the bitcoins to the buyer.
Need a cmoney/china radio show with Micon and friend on as a guest to clear all this shit up.