How likely is it that this pump is being caused by Bitfinex liquidating their tether into BTC? How do you see this playing out and is this a valid assessment of what's going on here?
Answer: Yes, this seems highly likely, after binance hack of 7,000 BTC ($40M) & Bitfinex Tether Scandal.
We must remember the the crypto market is still greatly unregulated, its still the wild wild west. This gives brokers and large players to manipulate the market relatively freely. There has also been an alarming rate of "wash trading" boosting volumes.
Binance has been "hacked" of 7,000 btc before, this would make it twice now.
Despite the ongoing Tether and Bitfinex fiasco, USDT movement hasn’t waned. There are massive transactions that have been moving Tether between various exchanges and the Tether treasury.
Two massive transactions involving Tether were recorded, moving in and out of Huobi, a Chinese exchange.
The first transaction transferred 10 million USDT from 1FwWBMfwxE9ngQ5DJKHFQsZ1wqpfD1sjpk to 1EPDc4Cw4xiqsoWCHnWepfwbqWLcBFamwm. The sender had a balance of 22 million USDT, while the receiver had zero balance and this transaction took place on the Omni Explorer.
@Whale_Alert tweeted the same transaction. However, the user mentioned that the above transaction was sent to Huobi from Binance.
Bitcoin (BTC) Rally Driven By Bitfinex Tether Issuance Hints Lawyer And Roubini
Bitcoin (BTC) touched $7,500 in the gigantic bullish run and is currently priced at $7,113 according to coinmarketcap.
Trading volumes in the top crypto have gone through the roof, to an all-time high of $29 billion yesterday, beating the previous record set on 8 January last year.
An analyst that tells you they weren’t surprised by the strength of the rally would be being less than honest.
The reasons for the breakout have been cited as anything from institutional FOMO to the start of New York Blockchain Week.
For sure there’s also been a lot of money sitting on the sidelines, a fair chunk of it retail, that may be starting to flow in too.
But the one theory that hasn’t really been voiced is market manipulation.
Lawyer’s Suspicions
Now Preston Byrne, a lawyer at Byrne & Storm, has thrown the bitfinex hand grenade into the mix. Byrne asserts that the parabolic rally by bitcoin may be connected to the happenings at Bitfinex, the crypto exchange in the eye of a New York Attorney general storm.
Crypto-hater Nouriel Roubini of the New York University Stern Business School, aka Dr Doom, is backing Byrne’s suspicions:
Tether is in the spotlight of the community, after being accused – once again – of using its influence to manipulate BTC prices through the fraudulent issuance of millions of dollars in USDT last week.
A recent set of tweets by the popular CT account Bitfinex’ed accuse Tether of issuing millions of USDT without any collateral, with the intention to support “fictitious” purchases of the token to drive up its prices. According to the account dedicated to monitoring the financial movements of Bitfinex, and especially Tether, the company began an uncontrolled printing scheme of new tokens on April 8, 2019. On this day, the total supply of USDT increased by 417 Million.
Bitfinex’ed has been highly critical of the use of USDT as a tool to manipulate markets. This opinion is not isolated, and previous accusations have already been made, all of which have been categorically denied by the Tether team.
In an interview with Bloomberg professor John Griffin explained that the relationship between the price of the BTC and the issuance of USDT led to the conclusion that there was an intention to manipulate the markets.
Even though the cryptocurrency market is considered by many to be a grey area from a legal point of view, the manipulation of this type of market is deemed to be illegal.
BTC Manipulation? Not the First Time
Tether has been previously subpoenaed before the CFTC precisely for this reason. Both Tether and Bitfinex argue that it is all a series of unfounded allegations. In an email, Bitfinex Chief Executive Officer JL van der Velde said that the accusations are false e has
Recently, Tether generated controversy in the community by removing from its documentation the assertion that each token was 1:1 backed by physical dollars.
Tether has not given any statements regarding the recent accusations posted by Bitfinex’ed .
Is this mini bull run nothing more than a Bull Trap? With the goal of making up for the $40M hack and Tether Scandal?
We wouldn't rule it out!
