So you all should know this already, but let us review. A couple of finance professors who specialize in detecting market manipulation in the real stock market published a study that concluded half the increase in bitcoin price during its run to $20,000 was due to artificial pumping by Bitfinex using tether. Various regulatory and criminal justice agencies appear to have taken it seriously. The Justice Department opened a broad criminal probe into Bitfinex, once the largest bitcoin exchange by volume, for price manipulation and fraud.
bloomberg.com
Bitfinex owns tether, a "full reserve" altcoin that was supposed to be backed 1:1 with US dollars. A widely held belief is that Bitfinex does not in fact possess three billion dollars to back the three billion coins they've printed and subsequently purchased bitcoins with. The auditing firm they hired quit back in January when the massive printing was ongoing, no other auditor would touch them with a ten foot pole, and the tiny Puerto Rican bank Bitfinex supposedly move their three billion dollars to has filed for bankruptcy. Keep in mind this never a legitimate bank, it had no real clients or business beyond holding a PR banking license. All of their funds came from crypto entities with Bitfinex being by far the largest client and as a result their fortunes were directly tied to Bitfinex/cryptocurrencies' fortunes.
It's over, cryptofags are finished
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A few days ago there was a large bitcoin sell order that caused prices to fall below 6000, likely from someone cashing out. Since then bitcoin prices have been in free fall and is currently nearing $3400. All other crytos are down more. Ethereum prices have fallen to almost $100, down nearly 95% from its $1400 highs. As a result of this, multiple large miners are discontinuing operations as they could no longer afford the electricity bill. Miners have pulled out of Sweden entirely and left the local utility with $1.5 million in unpaid electricity bills.
It appears that even with dirt cheap Scandinavian hydropower, miners could no longer operate at a profit. As a result of this the hash rate of the entire bitcoin network is dropping at a precipitous rate. This combined with bankrupt miners selling off their equipment at massive discounts is extremely bad for the survival of cryptocurrencies, since it decreases the cost for bad actors who may attempt to take over the network.
In brighter news, the collapse of all cryptos means a fire sale on used GPUs and a glut of previous generation chips. Not so great if you owned NVDA or AMD stock. But a buying opportunity otherwise.
blockchainreporter.net
btcmanager.com
Its really over isnt it. 0
Anything is possible in this market
Is it?
No, bitcoin hitting 4000 again is not possible. We are in the death spiral.
But can it recover?
No.
What really surprises me is how people really thought that the whole Tether thing was something the US govt. would be okay with.
There's a reason why Finex was allowed to do what it did when the Dems were in power. Read between the lines.
Remember, when you look for someone to place the blame on for what is happening right now, you only have to look towards Finex. No one else.
crypto falling is good for the environment tho :D