{"id":41404,"date":"2019-05-06T02:36:08","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T00:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ethereumworldnews.com\/?p=41404"},"modified":"2020-02-19T01:18:34","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T23:18:34","slug":"bitcoin-manipulation-binance-bitfinex-tether-and-that-1-1-million-btc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ethereumworldnews.com\/bitcoin-manipulation-binance-bitfinex-tether-and-that-1-1-million-btc\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin Manipulation, Binance, Bitfinex, Tether, And That 1.1 Million BTC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Bitcoin could still yet break $6,000 as momentum holds, but charges of manipulation and calls for Binance to delist<\/a> Tether, the 1.1 million bitcoin at the centre of a long-running Florida court case and a New York State injunction<\/a> threatening to cripple the operations of Bitfinex, are converging to provide market participants with plenty to chew on, if not choke over. At the centre of the angst is the British Virgin Islands registered Bitfinex exchange and the stablecoin operated by its sister company Tether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such is the dominance of the Tether (USDT) stablecoin despite its many competitors, the vortex its woes have set in motion threatens to suck other major crypto players into the storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ordinary crypto folks are not amused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Investors and traders have had to suffer the fun and games from Tether for a while now, from its byzantine corporate structure and relationships, its failure to audit its accounts, to its lack of transparency on issuance and dollar backing. Patience is wearing thin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are we at a tipping point? There is a rising clamour, as\nevidenced on Reddit and Twitter, for Tether to be removed from exchange trading\npairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That in turn has been greeted with incredulousness bordering on fear from those who beg to differ regarding the stablecoin’s suitability for its task, given the mounting doubts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They naturally remind critics of the pivotal role of the currency and the destabilising implications a rapid draining of USDT liquidity from the market would have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ire of those clamouring for action is beginning to focus\non Binance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It will be recalled that Binance was relatively quick to\nmake the unprecedented decision to remove a major altcoin when Bitcoin SV was unceremoniously\ndumped. The behaviour of Craig Wright was blamed for forcing that decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to Binance\u2019s actions, which were led very\npublicly by chief executive Changpeng Zhao (aka CZ), Wright has labelled the\nexchange a \u201cmoney laundering bucketshop\u201d. That\u2019s a serious charge against arguably\nthe world\u2019s largest crypto exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A post from Chico Crypto<\/a> on YouTube has got people talking. The YouTube channel claimed that the bitcoin price is being manipulated by whales and right up there leading the way is Binance, apparently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The excitable reporter claims that the 780 million Tether at the holding address of the funds had moved to a new address in a series of 10 transactions. But this new address now only has 42 million there. The transfer of funds had been previously telegraphed by CZ \u2013 he announced in advance that a large amount of USDT would be moving to a cold wallet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Chico YouTube story claims that the funds were dispersed in thousands of small transactions. A Reddit poster who goes by the name DontTrustJack<\/a> lauds the \u201csolid research\u201d by the YouTube channel but the truth of the matter seems to be altogether different to that imparted by the video source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But before we come to that, why if you are trying to\nmanipulate the price and \u201cdump on retail investors\u201d would you tell everyone\nthat you\u2019re about to shunt hundreds of millions of dollars\u2019 worth of Tether\ninto a cold wallet? <\/p>\n\n\n\n And why would you then disperse it to \u201cthousands\u201d of addresses\nfor all to see? And why thousands of addresses? Ok so a bot could co-ordinate\ntheir movements and smaller amounts are less suspicious perhaps to offload \u201cto\ncrash the price\u201d, but \u201cwhale manipulation\u201d has usually been assumed to take\nmore manageable forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLosing patience with Tether so why doesn\u2019t Binance delist?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Whale manipulation doesn\u2019t add up, but Binance is treating Tether differently<\/h2>\n\n\n\n