The thing that delayed my recognition for so long, is the fact that these guys have so much money already - why would they need to steal more? Any credible ideas?
Yes, they are not stealing it.
They sold BTC that they did not have.
Simple explanation.
It explains why the crashed the market in April 2013.
Assuming they sold and caused the april 2013 crash, why could they not simply buy the bitcoins back at $60-100 with massive profit? It makes no sense that they would sell customers bitcoin and not buy them back when they had a great opportunity to do so. But why would they take the risk of selling customer funds in the first place? This doesn't make sense. None of it.
It explains why for the longest time BTC has a higher USD premium that other exchanges.
And how does them selling all their bitcoin explain that exactly? The premium was higher because withdraws are delayed, that's all. People paid more for BTC to withdraw and sell on other exchanges. And then the argument of them having lack of USD falls short too, if they (according to you) sold at the very top and even caused the crash, they should be loaded with USD and withdraws should not be delayed due to insolvency.
Explain why right now BTC is 80% lower than other exchanges... this is a rigged up way to cover their shorts.
Market psychology, people are panicking due to FUD. I'll admit it's weird that people are willing to sell their coins in low $100s and double digits, but other than that, we don't know why people sell.
Unfortunately, they could be more short BTC than anyone can imagine.
Let's say you were in 2012 and had an exchange for some obscure crypto-currency like Bitcoin. What if you thought that Bitcoin could never possibly be worth more than $20. So when people come to your exchange, you sell them BTC that you don't have. Then one day in 2013, it rises from $10 to $240.... you panic... turn off all trading and crash the market. But the dip was too quick to cover your shorts, so for the longest time you try to cover... until you can't take it anymore and shut down all withdrawals.
Mt.Gox is short and are covering their shorts as we speak.
This is a wild conspiracy theory, and that's all this is. No indication that mtgox has stolen our funds, but with a tinfoil hat on, I guess anything is possible.
I keep talking about going short BTC and it seems most folks here don't have a clue what I'm talking about!