bitcoin

Bitcoin rally masks crypto capital flight – The Australian Financial Review


As in past periods of turmoil, investors are seen seeking the safety of bitcoin because it’s the largest and most liquid token.

“Since Tether is insufficiently backed, it means that some of the reserves backing customer assets on exchanges are likely insufficient,” John Griffin, a finance professor at University of Texas at Austin who had examined cryptocurrency market manipulation, said in an email.

On April 30, the companies behind Bitfinex and Tether said that the stablecoin is backed by cash and short-term securities equal to 74 per cent of the outstanding coins rather than completely pegged to the US dollar.  Bloomberg

“So smart customers will not custody their funds on exchanges and pull their crypto off exchanges. This could put further upward pressure on Bitcoin prices as one would rather take fake money and exchange it to Bitcoin.”

Data from TokenAnalyst shows that Bitfinex had net outflows of more than $US1.7 billion of bitcoin and ether from the exchange since April 26, after New York’s attorney general alleged the companies engaged in a coverup. Bitfinex and Tether dispute the allegation and have classified the transfer of funds as a loan.

Bitcoin traded at a premium of as much as 6 per cent on Bitfinex compared with other crypto exchanges after the funding controversy broke, while prices of many other coins initially tumbled since Tether is widely used throughout the $US250 billion market as an intermediary in crypto trading. The premium disappeared this week after Bifinex said it raised the equivalent of $US1 billion through an online sale of tokens.

On April 30, the companies behind Bitfinex and Tether said that the stablecoin is backed by cash and short-term securities equal to 74 per cent of the outstanding coins rather than completely pegged to the US dollar. That came as a surprise to many traders, who assumed it was fully backed, and used Tether to park assets in during times of high volatility in the crypto markets.

Kasper Rasmussen, a spokesman for Bitfinex, didn’t return a request for comment.

This wouldn’t be the first time for Tether to impact Bitcoin prices. Last year, Griffin co-authored a paper looking at Tether’s role in the 2017 boom, when bitcoin almost touched $US20,000. The authors concluded that Tether was used to manipulate cryptocurrency prices, and that market manipulation accounted for half of the runup.

“Given that the bitcoin market can be manipulated in such a significant way, it would not be a stretch nor surprising to find that manipulative activity is behind the recent run up when the underlying market mechanics are similar to before,” Griffin said.

Bloomberg



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.