what do you guys think about the Tether/Bitfinex conspiracy? Where is all this money coming from? Is bitfinex just "washtrading" the price in its desired direction?
Imho price of Bitcoin at 1k$ was the result of somehow healthy grow (~$10Mio Tether), now we have 7x this price (~600Mio Tether). This might be the next MtGox.
Get rich quick 101
1. Buy BTC with real USD
2. Print Tether
3. Pump BTC with Tether
4. FOMO
5. Sell BTC for USD
6. Profit
When you understand how washtrading works you'll understand that 20Mio Tether are enough to increase MarketCap by 20Billion$.
This works as long as the price of BTC stays high. Never short Bitcoin in the current situation. This bubble (Tether out of thin air) will pop.
How? In order to make money they would need to sell either tether or btc outside of bitfinex.
So far that has worked (obviously someone buys them at that price outside bitfinex), assuming they are not hoarding billions of btcs. And even if it explodes a la MtGox, I think we just have to deal with a short set back until the market absorbed the coins, they are not the only exchange out there.
But maybe I am oversimplifying
You cannot sell tether to fiat.
Markets are linked through e.g. margin bots.
Sure the BTC you buy at step 1) have to be moved to a "real" exchange.
Bitfinex has lost its banking support in april as far as I remember (just when the pumping started)
In order for Bitfinex to stay solvent (our somehow manage to back the tether with real dollar) the price has to climb.
There are margin lends at Bitfinex >100Mio Tether. Imagine some of that at leverage and you are the market because you can break resistances and support at will (Bitfinex "allows" washtrading)
The price moves favourable in that direction what is most profitable for bitfinex to close long/short positions (you're basically betting against the exchange)
They are not the only exchange, but that with the highest volume in BTC and tether is linked to other exchanges like Poloniex etc...even Kraken!
Its almost always the same scenario...price declines for some time...boom...tether magic out of the nowhere....fomo...slow selloff....repeat.
The bagholders are the buyers who think they got "cheap coins".
This problem is getting more and more media attention.
What do you think will happen if 2-3 exchanges close (suddenly) or you cannot withdraw anymore and people realize most of the price is thin air?
Expect price to surge to the 1000$ level when it pops...I don't know "when" but it will happen.
Because yolo, I currently only expose a little money (5% of my portfolio) to cryptorisk. Buy a little when it dips, sell a little when it bumps.
The supply of tethers keeps increasing because price of bitcoin keeps going up.
Are you kidding me? Its exactly the other way round!
20 Million these days is nothing. Its mostly from old adopters that sell their BTC whenever a new ATH is made.
20 Mio Tether != 20 Mio increase in marketcap. Marketcap means nothing because you can't sell all Bitcoins in circulation at ~7700$!
20 Mio Tether including leverage and in a single hand can make extremle pressure. You can climb the price scale at will when real! volume is low.