Researchers Claim One Whale Was Behind BTC Hitting $20k

• Texas and Ohio professors update prior research on 2017’s bull run
• Only ONE whale was allegedly behind the market movement
• But is that a bad thing?

In winter of 2017, there were a lot of claims floating around in regards to manipulation. Well now, researchers have escalated their claims about market manipulation for the time and are now claiming that it was just one whale that was responsible for Bitcoin’s historic price surge.

Professors of the universities of Texas and Ohio respectively, John Griffin and Amin Shams have updated their prior research, which made the point that market misconduct was behind Bitcoin’s bull run to an all-time high of $20,000 in December that year.

Getting the timing right

The Professors’ analysis’, was first published in a research paper in June last year and had argued the point that transaction patterns on the blockchain indicated Tether had been used to provide support for price and therefore the Bitcoin market saw manipulation:

“Purchases with Tether are timed following market downturns and result in sizable increases in Bitcoin prices. The flow is attributable to one entity, clusters below round prices, induces asymmetric autocorrelations in Bitcoin, and suggests insufficient Tether reserves before month-ends.”

Instead of suggesting demand from cash investors is what caused it, the two argued that these patterns were in sync with a “supply-based hypothesis of unbacked digital money inflating cryptocurrency prices.” +

As per CCN, “in an update to their previous research, the academics are intensifying their argument, which is set to be formally published in a forthcoming peer-reviewed paper for the Journal of Finance.”

It was reported by news outlets that the two argue that an analysis of Tether and Bitcoin transactions from March 1st, 2017, through March 31st, 2018, consolidates their view that a single body is behind usch a round of harsh manipulation in the market:

“This pattern is only present in periods following printing of Tether, driven by a single large account holder, and not observed by other exchanges.”

It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out but in theory, we should be thanking whoever manipulated the market as they sprung the industry into mainstream adoption, even if it were for a short time. For more news on this and other crypto updates, keep it with CryptoDaily!