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Bitcoin’s Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year, Researchers Say

nytimes.com

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Re: Bitcoin’s Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year, Researchers Say

#2
Link to the research paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3195066

From the abstract: 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. 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. The flow clusters below round prices, induces asymmetric autocorrelations in Bitcoin, and suggests incomplete Tether backing before month-ends. These patterns cannot be explained by investor demand proxies but are most consistent with the supply-based hypothesis where Tether is used to provide price support and manipulate cryptocurrency prices.

Re: Bitcoin’s Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year, Researchers Say

#4
Could we change the title to that of the article, "Bitcoin’s Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year, Researchers Say"? It currently implies that the New York Times did independent research ("NYT and UT Austin: Bitcoin Prices Manipulated by Tether and Bitfinex") which does not seem to be the case.

I think this is a subtle point but, with the tension surrounding 'fake news', it's critical to distinguish reporting on another's research from disclosing one's own results.

Re: Bitcoin’s Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year, Researchers Say

#5
post #3

Any ideas on why "they" appear unable to keep the price up at this point in time and continue fueling the hype? Already cashed out or just impossible to stem the tide of disillusioned people taking their losses and exiting?

Maybe they realized people were getting really suspicious of Tether and they couldn't keep creating tether ex nihilo?

Re: Bitcoin’s Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year, Researchers Say

#6
post #5
post #3

Any ideas on why "they" appear unable to keep the price up at this point in time and continue fueling the hype? Already cashed out or just impossible to stem the tide of disillusioned people taking their losses and exiting?

Maybe they realized people were getting really suspicious of Tether and they couldn't keep creating tether ex nihilo?

The people behind tether need to be put in handcuffs

Re: Bitcoin’s Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year, Researchers Say

#8
What I don't get about the theory that Tether was used to intentionally manipulate markets, is that if you have a money-printing machine, you don't need to manipulate markets as a business model. You can just print money, that's the business model.

Of course it's possible that that influx of capital will move a thin market. But Occam's razor seems to imply that that's a side effect rather than the intent.

Re: Bitcoin’s Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year, Researchers Say

#9
post #8

What I don't get about the theory that Tether was used to intentionally manipulate markets, is that if you have a money-printing machine, you don't need to manipulate markets as a business model. You can just print money, that's the business model. Of course it's possible that that influx of capital will move a thin market. But Occam's razor seems to imply that that's a side effect rather than the intent.

By printing money to prop up the price, you accomplish 2 things. One is that you can sell your crypto for USD if you are a large holder. The second is that you can acquire crypto for free because you created dollars (tether) out of nothing, and hold for the long term.

Re: Bitcoin’s Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year, Researchers Say

#10
post #3

Any ideas on why "they" appear unable to keep the price up at this point in time and continue fueling the hype? Already cashed out or just impossible to stem the tide of disillusioned people taking their losses and exiting?

They got subpoenas from us regulators.
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