Cryptocurrency: the fraud unmasked....
BITCOIN could crash up to 80 per cent if it turns out the price has been artificially pumped up by controversial crytpocurrency tether, analysts have warned.
Tether, a so-called “stablecoin” which aims to maintain a value of one US dollar per tether, has been described
as the “ticking time bomb” of the cryptocurrency world which could trigger the next “bloodbath” similar to the 2014 collapse of the Mt. Gox exchange.
And while Japanese exchange Coincheck on Friday confirmed it had
lost up to $US530 million in a hack worse than the $US450 million Mt Gox theft, it’s the “tether situation” which has the market on edge.
“Everyone in crypto is very worried about the tether situation, and if these really count as dollars,” said David Gerard, author of
Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain.
A key critic of tether and its owner Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange registered in the British Virgin Islands, is a blogger
going by the handle Bitfinex’d, who has published a series of detailed blog posts, tweets and YouTube videos outlining the scheme.
In effect, Bitfinex has been accused of creating tether out of thin air, without corresponding US dollar deposits, in order to pump up the price of bitcoin. While Bitfinex insists all new “USDT” are backed by real dollar deposits, new tether issuances have coincided with dips in the price of bitcoin.
