This is not my site, I am just another investor using them. So far I have been quite happy with their service.

Ok, here is that mini interview I promised to post. Bitcoin trader Canadian representative asked Michael Brandenburg, Bitcoin trader Head of Marketing and Business Development, to answer a few questions about their business model.


1) Do you foresee any changes to the way you do business in 6 months and a year from now?

Not really. We are of course observing the crypto market very closely and in particular the so called altcoin market. So there might be new products being offered, but in general we will operate in the same way.

2) How do you see the future of mining? Since November BTC prices have dropped to less than half of what they were. Mining difficulty has more than doubled. Is mining still profitable and for how much longer in your opinion?

Bitcoin Mining is a very sad story to be frank. Oversupply of ASIC miners generated a hashrate beyond the 'natural' growth rate of bitcoin. At the moment, considering the current bitcoin exchange rate, mining is almost unprofitable.  Whatever mining equipment is bought now, no profit will be made - on the contrary. We bought our mining equipment early and so far almost all who purchased a mining contract are in profit.. Also most of our equipment that was bought prior to the launch of BT paid off already, so we can increase the hash rate gradually. Since the beginning of February nobody is even buying mining contracts anymore. This might change once the btc price goes back to a level of at least $800.

3) How many clients do you have?

Currently close to 3,000.

4) What is the largest investment by any one person?

We have a handflull of clients who invested 50K in trading shares, as well as 50K in mining shares and another dozen clients who invested 50K either in trading or mining shares.

5) How many staff do you have?

Currently eight, that included two part time staff members.

6) How did the company first get started?

Bitcoin Trader is the brainchild of John Carley and two of his closed friends who are also dormant shareholders. John and his associates realized the potential of Bitcoin in 2011 and started mining the same year. With emerging exchanges they started trading as well. In 2013 after the Cyprus financial crisis, when bitcoin became known to the public, they've developed their pastime activity into a working business model.


7) Are you looking to expand the business? ie. other offices/staff, new investment products.

Yes. John is traveling to South East Asia during the coming weekend to train two more traders during a course of six weeks to take advantage of the strong potential of the Chinese exchanges (unfortunately most of their websites are not available in English). We are of course aware of the current rumors that the Chinese government may shut down exchanges within their territory. Others will open in Hong Kong or Singapore then. The Asian market is a strong one for bitcoin and thus for us, we have excellent results from the Philippines and South Korea for example.

In addition we are evaluating Litecoin Mining and Trading.

We have ordered 5 of the first available ASIC miners and will evaluate their potential for commercial usage after delivery in July. If they deliver what they promise we consider to add a Litecoin Mining Pool to our portfolio. Litecoin ASIC mining is new - it doesn't even exist as we speak. Considering the still very low Litecoin difficulty, we consider Litecoin ASIC mining to be profitable for at least 24 months, even at the current Litecoin price.

Same for Litecoin trading which is still in its infancy, since very few exhanges enabled Litecoin trading, but this might change in the course of the year.

Thanks for the above read, I am sticking with btc arbs for now. btc traders seems decent but locking my btc for 120 days and the fact that your paid in btc and not shares has won me over. I will let ya know if they take the btc and run but so far payments have been ontime 

April 10, 2014 trading update:


BTC-arbs: +2.75%  

Bitcoin trader: +0.31%  

In their daily update BTC-arbs recommends users to ENABLE 2-Factor Authentication and improve security of their accounts. It really takes only a few minutes, so if you use BTC-arbs, do it.
Also, this above average volatility which started yesterday, mainly due to negative reports from China, continues today as well. I also expect above average arbitrage results today.

I exchanged several emails and support tickets with two guys from Bitcoin trader, John Carley and Michel Brandenburg. They sign their blog posts as well and I was told that several payment processors they use are registered to John Carley. I suppose these payment processors require ID verification. Regardin BTC-arbs, no info there.

Just out of reference, the IDs required by payment processors are easily faked or at least edited to have the necessary information. Rarely do they have the time or staffing to actual physically verify anything - so these people by all means may not be 'John Carley' and 'Michel Brandenburg'.

April 11 trading update:

BTC-arbs: +2.18%

Bitcoin trader: +0.55%

I made another successful withdrawal from BTC arbs, it came through after 2 hours. Make sure you activate 2FA and potentially change password to increase security of your account.

Bought some shares about a week ago, we ll see how it goes. Locking down my btc for 120 days is not something I like to see but they seem quite profitable.

Lots of volatility between exchanges during the last 24 hours which is great for BTC arbitrage. The spread between Bitstamp and BTCe is constantly present. I expect today's results to be quite good, above 1%.

As I have mentioned several times, I do not like to keep all of my eggs in a single basket. Using only one service is not so smart, it is always best to disperse the risk. Also Bitcoin trader provides not only arbitrage but also cloud mining service. Not to mention they are almost 6 months old compared to 2.5 months of BTC-arbs being online.