
Trading platform admits Tether is manipulating Bitcoin price - pretfood
https://decrypt.co/7587/how-tether-is-fueling-this-booming-bitcoin-bull-run
======
Semaphor
So what's with the title on HN?

"Trading platform admits Tether is manipulating Bitcoin price"

This is nowhere in the article. When people spend millions to buy bitcoin, the
price goes up. That is how it works. If they have to take a step through
tether, that is only to work around the limitations of many exchanges not
taking fiat.

What bullshit.

~~~
quotha
The thing is they are not spending the millions. The tethers are not backed by
those millions. When this is realized, BTC price will crash!

~~~
Semaphor
That's a completely different thing and also not what the article is about.

But in any way, I don't understand that meme. When tether becomes worthless,
there will be a lot of uncertainty and maybe some people will panic sell, but
how does it actually affect the people who don't give a shit about tether?

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ceejayoz
Headline doesn't match the site, and the article reads largely like Bitfinex
PR.

The idea that large, savvy investors with millions to spend are going to put
their money into a currency that's already had nearly a billion dollars
_seized_ and under investigation by the NY AG is simply not credible to me.

~~~
headsoup
Indeed, the article is most certainly pro Tether/Bitfinex and handwaves the
accusation of doubt from Bitfinex'ed (with the old "yeah but other people do
it on other platforms (that are a little different...) so it's all legit!"

The best line is "Harborne said it was more a matter of bull-run optimism than
cynical market manipulation"...except the transactions come first...

~~~
abeaulne
> ...except the transactions come first...

one need to buy a ticket _before_ boarding the train

here the ticket is Tether, and the train are exchanges (mostly Bitfinex)

~~~
headsoup
Except the circular argument that their ticket is bought because of optimism,
that is created by them buying the ticket... hence the chicken-egg statement
in the article.

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granaldo
Bitcoin is priced at $11,000 now
[https://www.coingecko.com/en](https://www.coingecko.com/en) Is this largely
schemed by a few individuals having tether influence?

But what's more strange is how fast the price has gone up in the last 30 days
based on the chart. I will put that this wont hold water for too long

------
ixtli
I cant figure out why this is flagged and people are claiming the article
doesn't support the HN title. What does this mean if not "tether is being used
to manipulate BTC"

> “Bitfinex [a large crypto exchange that operates as Tether’s affiliate]
> issues tethers to their traders for market manipulation, market manipulators
> pump and dump, then ‘pay’ for the tethers later.”

The title is literally the core claim the article is making. To be very clear,
though, this is not news to anyone who follows bitcoin community drama. Whats
funny about the article is that an insider admitted it.

~~~
ceejayoz
IMO, Tether is dirty as shit, but we're still supposed to use the actual title
on HN. The headline here doesn't appear in the article at all, even if the
implications do.

~~~
ixtli
ahh fair. i was under the impression that you could summarize the point in HN
titles. tbh there's so much cognitive dissonance in the world of BTC
commentary that an explanation should be mandatory!

~~~
ceejayoz
Only if it's too long to fit, or a clickbaity headline. :-)

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jnordwick
Whales and otc desks buy Teathers in $100k blocks so they spread purchases
across exchanges that didn't accept dollars?

That's doesn't sound like manipulation. It sounds oddly normal and acceptable
for a coin that we know has problems.

The biggest lie in your article is calling tether "fully backed". That's
laughable since we know from the AG report it is 70% at most and likely lower
when you ignore paper from related companies.

~~~
benmunster1
literally addresses this: "The blogger Bitfinex’ed disputes this, saying that
Tether’s failure to disclose the Buy orders from its customers amid the New
York Attorney General’s ongoing investigation into Bitfinex—which was accused
of borrowing from Tether’s supposedly “fully backed” reserves to cover up an
$850 million hole in its finances—looks fishy."

------
ixtli
people "printing" Tether have been manipulating BTC price for a very long
time. I have personally benefited from this!

~~~
fbernier
You have not benefited from it until you've sold and exchanged for actual
money in your bank account. Just making sure you know.

