New research (PDF) suggests that a price manipulation scheme may have been behind the cryptocurrency’s extraordinary rally in 2017. The study: Researchers at the University of Texas analyzed blockchain data and found that large purchases of cryptocurrency from multiple trading platforms in exchange for Tether, a crypto-token that’s supposedly pegged to the US dollar , were “timed following market downturns” and, since cryptocurrency prices tend to move as one, resulted in “sizable increases in Bitcoin prices.” This suggests, according to the New York Times , that a few players may have been propping up the price of Bitcoin and […]
