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U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation

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Re: U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation

#31

Post by jasonmorton »

fwdpropaganda wrote: post #2

Some context from a non-expert. From what I understand, things like spoofing in financial markets (where you submit orders which you don't plan to have filled for the purpose that the market sees "interest" in a certain direction and in hope that moves the market), are regulated but still a grey area. The reason for this is that it's an activity that involves intent. Placing certain orders is perfectly ok if you're h…

Yes, it seems like intent is important, but in some cases (e.g. the BATS rule), no intent is needed. There are statistical properties that indicate intent, but it seems like most of the criminal cases involve finding an email or text message like "I found a bot" or someone telling an engineer to build a system with a manipulative intent.

Re: U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation

#32

Post by Cthulhu_ »

krageon wrote: post #23
thisisit wrote: post #20

This going to be interesting. They will ask all the US based exchanges - Coinbase, Circle etc for their trade and order data for analysis. Coinbase has already fought and lost a case when it came to sharing the data for tax purposes. And one of the touted features of cryptocurrency has always been anonymity.

Bitcoin is traceable by nature. Anyone who makes claims of anonymity either doesn't understand how it works or has a system in place that provides uncertainty (ie tumbling).

Traceable yes, but also anonymous since a BTC address is just a number without any personally identifiable information attached to it. It's at the edges - e.g. exchanges - where it becomes traceable.

Re: U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation

#33

Post by Cthulhu_ »

bhouston wrote: post #10
TangoTrotFox wrote: post #4

Markets are constantly manipulated and what we consider acceptable or not seems at times quite arbitrary. For instance quantitative easing is a practice we engage in whose entire purpose is to artificially inflate the value of markets to help spur 'growth.' Is the problem that people may be trying to manipulate the price of decentralized commodity or that people are investing in a decentralized commodity without real…

Central banks are in the business of market manipulation via interest rates, and money supply. This is to control growth and inflation so that business cycles are smoothed out to a degree.

Central banks are however beholden to national and international laws, governmental scrutiny, and the international financial market. Yes they can - and do - manipulate the markets on an unfathomable scale, but it's to enable and protect national and international economies, instead of optimising for quick wins and personal gain.

Re: U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation

#35

Post by Cthulhu_ »

celticninja wrote: post #30
sureaboutthis wrote: post #21

This is so strange to me because I was unaware bitcoin was a real financial instrument any country would care about. I've had three financial advisors, from Edward Jones, Stifel Nicolas and a little guy around the corner, all tell me to stay away from bitcoins. One even told me that, in two years, bitcoin would be dead. So this is all strange to me.

To be fair almost every financial advisor ever would have told you to stay away from bitcoin because it was an unknown quantity and very high risk. In hindsight everyone of them was wrong if you bought in at any point between 2009 and mid - 2017 and sold in the last 6 - 8 months. Also they have been calling bitcoins death since about 2009 when it was created so I would not put too much faith in those predictions. If…

They would've been right if it was the Zimbabwaean dollar if you bought it in the 80's, or one of Bernie Madoff's financial products.

They could still be right, given time. They've been right for Bitcoin Gold, for example. They were right when MtGox crashed.

Re: U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation

#36

Post by celticninja »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #32
krageon wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is traceable by nature. Anyone who makes claims of anonymity either doesn't understand how it works or has a system in place that provides uncertainty (ie tumbling).

Traceable yes, but also anonymous since a BTC address is just a number without any personally identifiable information attached to it. It's at the edges - e.g. exchanges - where it becomes traceable.

Pseudonymus

Re: U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation

#37

Post by mFixman »

sine wrote: post #5

For anyone who hasn't been following, the prevailing theory is that the largest Cryptocoin exchange "Bitfinex" also runs an altcoin called "Teather" which was marketed as being backed 1:1 by USD. So far they've created 2.8 BILLION USDT and coincidently the times they create millions of these happens to be in the middle of extreme market crashes. See this chart: https://i.imgur.com/Uo07d1d.jpg More details here: https…

I'm lost. Why is it significant that they supposedly create Tether during market crashes?

Re: U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation

#38

Post by ploggingdev »

sine wrote: post #5

For anyone who hasn't been following, the prevailing theory is that the largest Cryptocoin exchange "Bitfinex" also runs an altcoin called "Teather" which was marketed as being backed 1:1 by USD. So far they've created 2.8 BILLION USDT and coincidently the times they create millions of these happens to be in the middle of extreme market crashes. See this chart: https://i.imgur.com/Uo07d1d.jpg More details here: https…

What happened to the bitfinexed guy, he's gone silent on social media?

Re: U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation

#39

Post by imeron »

mFixman wrote: post #37
sine wrote: post #5

For anyone who hasn't been following, the prevailing theory is that the largest Cryptocoin exchange "Bitfinex" also runs an altcoin called "Teather" which was marketed as being backed 1:1 by USD. So far they've created 2.8 BILLION USDT and coincidently the times they create millions of these happens to be in the middle of extreme market crashes. See this chart: https://i.imgur.com/Uo07d1d.jpg More details here: https…

I'm lost. Why is it significant that they supposedly create Tether during market crashes?

You can create Tether out of thin air and use it to move the market in a favourable direction.

Re: U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation

#40

Post by adrianN »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #32
krageon wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is traceable by nature. Anyone who makes claims of anonymity either doesn't understand how it works or has a system in place that provides uncertainty (ie tumbling).

Traceable yes, but also anonymous since a BTC address is just a number without any personally identifiable information attached to it. It's at the edges - e.g. exchanges - where it becomes traceable.

Good luck using bitcoin in a way where you can't connect the BTC address to a real person after a small number of transactions. Anonymizing data is very hard, pseudonyms are almost never anonymous.
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