University of Texas Associated Bitcoin Growth in 2017 with One Large Whale

Researchers from the University of Texas said that Bitcoin's more than twenty-fold increase in 2017 wasassociated with the activities of one large "whale", which traded on the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange.

University of Texas employees updatedResults of a study first published in 2018. According to their findings, the growth of Bitcoin from $ 900 to $ 20,000 was caused by the activities of one major player on the Bitfinex exchange, whose name is not named. This conclusion was made on the basis of the analysis of USDT and BTC transactions from March 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018.

“The data that we received suggests thatnot thousands of cryptocurrency traders moved the price up, but one major player, the authors of the publication said. “Time will pass and people will begin to wonder at the fact that investors transferred billions of dollars to those whom they did not know and who were practically not controlled.”

University of Texas employees last yearin their article suggested that the growth of Bitcoin was associated with manipulation by Tether. In their opinion, the company actually issued unsecured USDT tokens and then bought BTC on them, which led to an increase in quotations.

Bitfinex chief lawyer Stuart Hoegner considers the study inaccurate and “distorted at the fundamental level” because it uses insufficient data sampling.

"Researchers want to use visibilityscientific work for personal enrichment. You can update your work as much as you like, but it still won’t add academic rigor,” — Hegner expressed his opinion.

Previously, researchers at the University of Texas said that Tether was used to stabilize bitcoin quotes in 2017 and to manipulate.

“I watched what was happening at that time and sawhow millions of retail accounts were created during the huge boom in 2017,” — Mati Greenspan, senior analyst at the eToro platform, noted this.

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