The eerie, Gox-like have had a corresponding effect on many of its coins, whose price are exhibiting Goxcoin-like behavior on the exchange relative to other venues.
Taking Peercoin (PPC) as an example, it is currently trading at $2.60-$2.70 on most exchanges- but the equivalent of $4.27 on Vircurex (last trade was 7.6 mBTC), making for a 58% premium to other exchanges.
Namecoin: $3.37 vs $2.70 elsewhere (25% premium).
Dogecoin: 0.096¢ vs 0.066¢ elsewhere (45% premium)
Just to be sure, 24h volumes for all of these coins are not low. They rank second to those of BTC-e.
The premium being paid for such coins appears to account for a fear-factor driven by last year's hack and yesterday's freeze which included Bitcoin , Litecoin, Feathercoin and Terracoin. Like the good old days on MtGox, when you paid a $120 premium for a Bitcoin in order to more easily get it off the exchange, traders are likely buying up the above Altcoins among others to do the same. The above altcoins are thus "Vircoins" in being like Goxcoin when it was worth more than on other exchanges, but Bitcoin on Vircurex is more deserving of the title when compared with Goxcoin's final days when it was worth far less.
One would hope that there are no further surprises with these or other coins, as encountered on MtGox when Goxcoin's premium turned into a steep discount.
The recent events at Vircurex are a possible catalyst for the recent poor performance of Bitcoin and Litecoin universally. Both are languishing near multi-week lows, with Bitcoin near $560 and Litecoin around $15.70. This would be comparable to the steep declines observed across the board as the MtGox crisis unfolded, where traders feared for the stability of their coins wherever they were.
