Bitstamp has officiallyannounced that the minimum trade amount will be changed to $US 5.00 in light ofcomplaints from users.

Penny wars

Users and forum membershave complained and expressed their concerns on bitcointalk.org that the seemingly negligible fee of 0.2% is,in fact, rounding off transaction fees to the nearest penny upwards, which hasbeen adding up for Bitstamp when it comes to micro-transactions.

Previously, the minimumorder for a trade was $US 0.86. Therefore, the fee for this amount at 0.2%would result in $US 0.00172 (0.002 x 0.86). This fee would then get rounded offto $0.01 due to Bitstamp’s rounding off method.

A user on BitcoinTalk hasexplained that this amount is almost 5 times the actual fee of 0.2%. Forexample, a dollar traded on the exchange would yield a fee of $US 0.01, meaningthat the fee of 0.2% promised by Bitstamp is actually 1% instead or a penny forevery dollar. 

With hundreds to thousandsof transactions taking place daily, these fees can certainly result in a heftysum.

Raising the bar

Apparently, Bitstamp hastaken note from one user on BitcoinTalk, Boxman90, who suggested that theychange the amount to $US 5. This minimum threshold that will set the applicablefee for users at 0.2% instead of 1% (5 x 0.002 = 0.01) since that is the lowestamount that will make the math constant across the board.

Bitstamp responded byissuing an official press-release:

Dear Bitstamp clients,

On May 15th, 2014 theminimum trade amount will be changed to $5.00.

Bitstamp’s accounting system rounds trading fees topennies. To greatly reduce the impact of this rounding for our clients theminimum trade amount is being raised to $5.00.

The $5.00 trade minimumwill apply to both our web interface and our API.

Best regards,

Bitstamp team

Reactions from thecommunity

While some responses havecritiqued the move questioning as to why the rounding off policy is not simplychanged the overall reaction has been largely positive with many users sayingthis will curb the prevalence of penny-trading bots. Many users have expressedtheir gratitude for Bitstamp acting swiftly and positioning themselves as alegitimate and reputable business.


Garland William Binns III (Bitcoin.org): "I think it's a good thing that Bitstamp has reacted so quickly and addressed this issue. I don't think it will have any negative effect on their transaction volume. Overall, I think it's a good thing for Bitcoin as well - an exchange working closely with the community, to address their concerns and ensure a positive user experience focused on reliability. Thumbs up."