Ex-SEC member John Reed Stark recently took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the recent rally of Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency. According to Stark, the recent rally in Bitcoin’s price is due to market manipulation.
Citing a Forbes analysis of 157 crypto exchanges, Stark claims that 51% of daily Bitcoin trading volume is likely fake and that this is just the tip of the iceberg. He also references a post by David Gerard, which addresses why the Bitcoin price is heading toward $20,000.
Why Bitcoin Price Is On the Rise
Journalist David Gerard has provided his insights on the question of why the Bitcoin price is heading toward $20,000. He argues that the answer is always “shenanigans” and that the cause is never macroeconomic actions, regulatory announcements, or the dollar’s strength.
Gerard believes the recent rally in Bitcoin’s price is due to bad news for major players and market manipulation. He cites events such as the potential insolvency of Genesis, lawsuits against Gemini and Genesis by the SEC, and Nexo’s downfall as examples of bad news.
He also notes that market manipulation may occur as it can be cheaper to rig the price than to win a margin bet. Gerard states that the Bitcoin market is small and easily manipulated, with billions of unbacked stablecoins on unregulated exchanges.
According to him, the price needs to be high enough to prevent loans from getting liquidated but low enough to prevent bagholders from cashing out.
He pointed out the artificial price pumps seen in the Bitcoin market chart, arguing that the notion of broader market forces shaping the price of BTC is part of a general delusion that well-behaved markets are natural.
He states that the proper regulation of markets like the US stock market for nearly a century has created a controlled environment, unlike the largely unregulated BTC market, where price discovery occurs in offshore casinos with little oversight.
He asserts that BTC is a manipulated pile of trash, and the price is easily manipulated by exchanges like FTX and Binance, which engage in front-running and other unethical practices.
Bitcoin is utterly not the same sort of creature – it’s a pile of manipulated trash, where the price discovery happens in unregulated offshore casinos who are under literally no rules except “don’t spook the sucker”.
Bitcoin Price Review
As TronWeekly reported, BTC rose to a two-month peak on January 12th, breaking above $19,000, and briefly exceeded $20,000. The price climbed above and reached around $21,000 on early January 14th.
However, according to Coinmarketcap, the current trading price of BTC is $21,101.32. The daily chart shows a 1.89% increase and an impressive 22.73% rise in the last seven days. The 24-hour trading volume is down by 20%, while the market cap is up by 2%.