I too have a little coin in BT and have done for sometime.
But if I was going away on holiday (i.e. John off sailing). I would probably not take the cold storage keys with me. Especially to China. I would probably have them in a safety deposit box in a Bank.
Perhaps we are just waiting for his return to get things moving?
Or perhaps we have all indeed been screwed.
Perhaps the BearWhale was BT cleaning out their wallets before running?
All we can really do is give it a few days. If nothing.....the hunt is on.
The Bitcoin would not be in Cold Storage if it was supposed to be in arbitrage 5 days a week..
The simple fact is that if they indeed held bitcoin, the shares that where expiring where bought at 650 and had to be bought out at 290 or so.. That would be reason for a cash flow crunch..
Actually, if you bought shares at 650/BTC, sent to BT, and if they hold deposits in USD to avoid volatility, they'd have the opposite problem. If I just want my BTC back, then it will cost them less to convert back to BTC and send it back to me.