Topic: [2018-06-13] New Research Blamed Tether for Bitcoin Price Manipulation in 2017 - page 2. (Read 359 times)

Bitcoin is hot and only getting hotter, so it's the perfect opportunity for every 'forgotten' ego to boost his public status. What is there to report about the boring stock markets? Apple reaching new highs? Tesla being worth billions but not making a single penny in profits? People know that already. Bitcoin is the fresh breeze all these traditional farts have been waiting for. Just browse through the YouTube channels of mainstream news sites, nearly everything with Bitcoin in the title has more views than other financial subjects. They just ride the hype -- once the price is going back up they will start praising Bitcoin again.

New research, old news. New research, same old themes. It's actually something I believe is happening, but as the critics point out, this type of research is hardly scientific and not peer reviewed (not that peer review these days is actually resulting in any better research!). Correlation, as well, is certainly not causation.

I shouldn't be surprised that false scientists are coming up to take their fame, publication is all that matters, and it won't matter if the methodology isn't sound or if this ever retracted.

You've either got the mainstream media which is largely uninformed and interested in spinning whatever truth there may be out there, or you have the crypto media which is maybe a bit less uninformed and even less interested in the truth.

Someone looking for straightforward reportage is fucked no matter where they look. It's a pretty dire state of affairs.

@Thadeous. That is nothing but mainstream news creating FUD no matter if the news itself is true or not. As far as we should be concerned, all of them should be treated as fake news until the articles are verified.

Also you have to understand that making FUD is good business hehehe.

As for me nowadays crypto media became very ambiguous and chaotic:
- yesterday Bitcoin was banned and overregulated,
- today Bitcoin is accepted and praised all over the world,
- another day - Bitcoin claimed a bubble and a piramid.
All this crypto noise becomes more and more boring and senseless.

John McAfee, the Crypto Crusader, who has always fought for all crypto enthusiasts, was opposing this theory from the researchers via Twitter and had this to say to his faithful followers:

"The mainstream media - controlled by the existing power structure - price manipulation reports are involved in the bitcoin price increase last year. The manipulation has taken place, but it's a conspiracy to push the price of Bitcoin to not How much less you see today. Wise up! "

@BitHolder. I reckon the mainstream news media will start to shift their attention and FUD from ICOs to fiat tokens in conjunction with the efforts of the regulators to stop them, now that Ethereum is declared not a security.

@Thadeos. Yes because when bitcoin is falling, that is when USDT is in high demand. The issuer has to issue more to keep the price to the $1.00 peg.

There is no point in rehashing Tether speculation without any new indications of suspicious activity. Don't forget that the Tether tokens are distributed throughout the whole world and crypto market.

The spike of last year might have been fake, but it is bought up with a combination of a shitload of Tether and actual USD. If authorities think something is wrong with Tether, then FORCE them to be open.

Since when have authorities become this soft? If nothing happens, we'll be seeing the same nonsense pop up in the next few years. Fiat is being converted to token, isn't that serious enough to play hard game?

Yeah, probably clickbait took place. But many sources mentioned suspicious Tether behavior during price fluctuations.
And it's obvious that Tether sells most of USDT when price is falling.

The Cointelegraph article is clickbait FUD. Read this one.

https://www.pymnts.com/blockchain/bitcoin/2018/bitcoin-rise-tether-exchange-crypto/

From that article it said one important detail. The authors found that Tether was used to purchase bitcoin at pivotal points when the price of the cryptocurrency was falling.

Maybe this is what happens when bitcoin's price is falling, users sell bitcoins for USDT, and the outcome is USDT price increases because of high demand versus the US dollar, so the solution is to issue more USDT to peg the price back to $1.00.

Some quality discussion here - https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/8qr0fd/new_york_times_university_of_texas_at_austin/?sort=confidence

Dunno what to think myself. If there'd been zero glimmers about Tether's backing it would be one thing, but BFX is now back to USD withdrawals and there was ING's grudging admission that BFX banked with them.

Anyway it's doom season so let's sit back and feel gloomy.

Research: Tether, Bitfinex ‘Manipulation’ Reason Behind 2017 Bitcoin Price Highs

Tether (USDT) has once again become the source of criticism after a new study blamed it for Bitcoin price manipulation in 2017, The New York Times reports Wednesday, June 13.

A paper released June 13 by John M. Griffin and Amin Shams of the University of Texas suggests that transaction patterns show Tether was “used to provide price support and manipulate cryptocurrency prices.”

Half of the Bitcoin price rise in December 2017, when the cryptocurrency reached all-time highs around $20,000, was explicitly due to Tether and issuer Bitfinex, the researchers claim.

“Using algorithms to analyze the blockchain data, we find that purchases with Tether are timed following market downturns and result in sizable increases in Bitcoin prices,” the paper’s abstract summarizes.

   “Less than 1% of hours with such heavy Tether transactions are associated with 50% of the meteoric rise in Bitcoin and 64% of other top cryptocurrencies.”

Tether has routinely fallen under suspicion since late last year after repeat releases of coins onto the market had an immediate knock-on effect on Bitcoin prices.

Griffin and Shams’ hypothesis has this time also become fodder for mainstream media, publications seizing on the information to demonstrate the allegedly opaque nature of Bitcoin markets.

According to the New York Times, the research “likely to stoke a debate about how much of Bitcoin’s skyrocketing gain last year was caused by the covert actions of a few big players, rather than real demand from investors.”

Nonetheless, some industry figures appeared to agree, fellow research firm Chainalysis claiming the results “seem credible.”

This week, Tether passed both Monero and Dash to become the cryptocurrency with the twelfth-largest market cap.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/research-tether-bitfinex-manipulation-reason-behind-2017-bitcoin-price-highs