Bitcoin

[GreenJesus]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitco...161337500.html

Bitcoin’s massive surge in 2017 was the result of market manipulation by one big player, a study has found.

The digital currency market grew from “nearly nothing to over $300 billion in market capitalization in only a few years,” but the time period between March 2017 and March 2018 was especially notable as it was responsible for 58.8 percent of bitcoin’s compounded return and 64.5 percent of the returns of six other cryptocurrencies, according to the study’s authors. Bitcoin reached a high of about $20,000 a coin on Dec. 17, 2017.

The huge gains associated with that period are the result of a single player at Bitfinex, the world’s largest crypto exchange at the time, using a cryptocurrency called tether to increase the demand for bitcoin, the study’s authors, John Griffin, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Red McCombs School of Business, and Amin Shams, assistant professor of finance at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, found.

They say the single largest player on Bitfinex “either exhibited clairvoyant market timing or exerted an extremely large price impact on Bitcoin that is not observed in the aggregate flows from other small traders.”

Griffin and Shams did not say who was behind the manipulation.
“This is a transparent attempt to use the semblance of academia for a mercenary money grab,” Stuart Hoegner, general counsel to Bitfinex, told FOX Business. “Updates or not, the paper lacks academic rigor and is foundationally flawed because it employs a grossly incomplete data set, erroneous statistical methodology and offers no proof of market manipulation to support its conclusions."

Like bitcoin, tether is a digital currency; however, it is considered a “stablecoin” because it said to have $1 in reserve for every tether that is issued.

The report, out on Oct. 28, was an update from a study the duo released in June 2018, which found tether was “used both to stabilize and manipulate” bitcoin’s price in 2017.
Bitcoin’s price has fallen by 53.6 percent to $9,310 a coin since topping out at $20,089 on Dec. 17, 2017, according to CoinMarketCap.com. The market for digital currencies is down to $249.6 billion.

Potentially interesting, but as we all know academic studies are often flawed or biased. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this study was true though. Bitcoin price could easily be manipulated by a few big players that can swing demand however they please. Bitcoin is tough, because there is no cashflow/dividends/assets you are investing in. The bitcoin itself is what you are buying and hopefully it retains its value while you own it.

[the game]

I'm in a bitcoin group on facebook and it's crazy watching all of their speculation on it. I do wish I would've invested in bitcoin back when it first started. I could've made some good money by now.

[GreenJesus]

I'm in a bitcoin group on facebook and it's crazy watching all of their speculation on it. I do wish I would've invested in bitcoin back when it first started. I could've made some good money by now.

Well yeah.. but the whole point is awhen do you invest and at what point do you leave? It's easy retrospectively saying "man I would have made a killer."

[the game]

Well yeah.. but the whole point is awhen do you invest and at what point do you leave? It's easy retrospectively saying "man I would have made a killer."

I mean that's good to think of but the way I look at it it is no different than investing in the stock market. If I would've invested in bitcoin when it was started and at like $5-20 per coin I could've bouth $200 worth and checked out when it hit like $15k per coin. Would be a really nice profit.

[GreenJesus]

I mean that's good to think of but the way I look at it it is no different than investing in the stock market. If I would've invested in bitcoin when it was started and at like $5-20 per coin I could've bouth $200 worth and checked out when it hit like $15k per coin. Would be a really nice profit.

But back then no one thought it was legit. Again, it's easy to say down the road "I shoulda coulda woulda"

[the game]

But back then no one thought it was legit. Again, it's easy to say down the road "I shoulda coulda woulda"

I mean they say hindsight is 20/20.

[wunksta]

There's around $41 billion in Bitcoin while gold has $8 trillion, stocks have $66 trillion so Bitcoin is just a drop in the bucket compared to other assets. So yeah any large players could potentially cause a spike in demand. As more people and organizations get involved, it will start smoothing out the spikes and will take much more to move the price. Big picture wise, the foundations of Bitcoin and blockchain tech are solid and isn't going away.

[Lynarii]

There's around $41 billion in Bitcoin while gold has $8 trillion, stocks have $66 trillion so Bitcoin is just a drop in the bucket compared to other assets. So yeah any large players could potentially cause a spike in demand. As more people and organizations get involved, it will start smoothing out the spikes and will take much more to move the price. Big picture wise, the foundations of Bitcoin and blockchain tech are solid and isn't going away.

The tech behind Bitcoin and blockchains is really powerful and shouldn't go away. But it's still far too unstable to be useful as a currency, dealing with it at the vendor level requires it's value being close enough at the end of the day to what it was at the start that eating the difference is not a significant concern to either party in the transaction. And it's hard to say if Bitcoin will ever stabilize enough to be that. With market manipulation and fraudulent exchanges (another one just went sour here recently) muddying the waters, something has to change to really pin it down and build confidence in it if it aspires to be anything more than a stock traded between speculators.

[Temp name]

Well yeah.. but the whole point is awhen do you invest and at what point do you leave? It's easy retrospectively saying "man I would have made a killer."

I originally started considering it in 2013 or something I think. But being honest, I'd probably have bailed around summer, or maybe early fall in 2017, if I still had any coins left (I'd likely have cashed out in 2016 for a decent profit already). It was just screaming bubble and I'd have wanted out. That said, I never bought any coins, too much speculation for me

[zenkai]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitco...161337500.html



Potentially interesting, but as we all know academic studies are often flawed or biased. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this study was true though. Bitcoin price could easily be manipulated by a few big players that can swing demand however they please. Bitcoin is tough, because there is no cashflow/dividends/assets you are investing in. The bitcoin itself is what you are buying and hopefully it retains its value while you own it.

When bitcoin first came out I didn't think it would go anywhere, I thought people wouldn't be dumb enough to put money into it. Boy was I wrong, I have often lost good opportunities because I over estimated the average intelligence.

[Molis]

One large player at the top

Remind you of anything?

[Altrec]

When bitcoin first came out I didn't think it would go anywhere, I thought people wouldn't be dumb enough to put money into it. Boy was I wrong, I have often lost good opportunities because I over estimated the average intelligence.

I have the same problem. Early on I strongly considered dropping $500 on BitCoin when it was something like $0.25 per coin just for the hell of it, but decided against it because it was in my mind a dumb idea in general. Had I done it the value would be around $18.8 million today. Oh well.

[mariopepper]

Bitcoin investing still seems quite good idea but I would not do it anyway.. I don't know what to expect from this for sure. There are so many different cryptos and it's quite dangerous to invest in when you don't have enough knowledges about cryptocurrency, finance and banking industry. So I'd rather check all possibilities and ask for advice before doing some serious steps. EffectiveSoft Corporation or other companies like this can work with bitcoin, etc because they have special knowledges. If you don't have - you should learn more before.

[Blown03SVT]

I have the same problem. Early on I strongly considered dropping $500 on BitCoin when it was something like $0.25 per coin just for the hell of it, but decided against it because it was in my mind a dumb idea in general. Had I done it the value would be around $18.8 million today. Oh well.

I had a friend who was into the emergence of bitcoin in 2009 when it was less than a few cents per coin, he tried talking me into it then, just to even put $50 into it. I thought it was nonsense. It would be “worth” 22m+ now. I put it in quotes because I have doubts that it would’ve been easy to sell all of it fast enough to get that out of it.