I heard similar rumors about the 2013 bull run as well (when the exchange rates went up from $5 to $1261). But back then it was more believable. The accusation was that Mt Gox rigged the exchange rates and this caused the Bitcoin prices to rally. Back then there were only a few exchanges operating, so there is a chance for that happening. But how can this be possible in 2017, when there were hundreds (if not thousands) of exchanges. Is it possible to manipulate all these exchanges, which are spread out all over the globe?
devil's advocate: hundreds of exchanges list USDT pairs. in fact for most of them, these are the only liquid "fiat" pairs. bots/algorithms respond to price moves at bitfinex and the biggest USDT markets like binance because from a volume/arbitrage perspective they should have a significant influence over the market. USDT's daily volume ($27 billion in the last 24 hours) surpasses that of BTC so it certainly can't be ignored. tether is effectively one of the world's largest exchanges so it
should greatly affect price.
that's still a far cry from claims about "manipulation" though. if that's the standard being set, then every asset on earth is manipulated.
the only evidence being presented here is this:
1. someone tried to buy a lot of bitcoins via tether
2. this created a situation where demand outweighed supply
3. the price of bitcoins went up afterwards
it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see why price went up. for university professors, these guys seem pretty retarded.