A study published Wednesday says at least half of the jump in bitcoin was due to coordinated price manipulation.
“Fraud and manipulation often leave footprints in the data and it’s nice to have the blockchain to track things,” Griffin told CNBC.
By tracking Bitfinex transactions, which are recorded on a public ledger, Griffin found that another cryptocurrency, tether.
“It was creating price support for bitcoin, and over the period that we examined, had huge price effects,” Griffin said.
“In general I research things that are potentially illegal, and there’s a lot of rumors surrounding potential questionable activity in cryptocurrencies,” he said.
“There were obviously tremendous price increases last year, and this paper indicates that manipulation played a large part in those price increases,” Mr. Griffin said. Bitfinex executives have denied in the past that the exchange was involved in any manipulation.
Tether (USDT) has once again become the source of criticism after a new study blamed it for Bitcoin price manipulation in 2017, The New York Times reports Wednesday, June 13. A paper released June 13 by John M.