
Is Bitcoin Really Un-Tethered? - lultimouomo
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3195066
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lultimouomo
The paper abstract:

> This paper investigates whether Tether, a digital currency pegged to U.S.
> dollars, influences Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices during the
> recent boom. Using algorithms to analyze the blockchain data, we find that
> purchases with Tether are timed following market downturns and result in
> sizable increases in Bitcoin prices. Less than 1% of hours with such heavy
> Tether transactions are associated with 50% of the meteoric rise in Bitcoin
> and 64% of other top cryptocurrencies. The flow clusters below round prices,
> induces asymmetric autocorrelations in Bitcoin, and suggests incomplete
> Tether backing before month-ends. These patterns cannot be explained by
> investor demand proxies but are most consistent with the supply-based
> hypothesis where Tether is used to provide price support and manipulate
> cryptocurrency prices.

