The price of Bitcoin is being manipulated in possibly unlawful ways, Forbes macroeconomist Peter Tchir has claimed.
“Whether the activities meet the legal definition of manipulation or can lead to a criminal indictment remains to be seen, but I’d be shocked if there wasn’t manipulation of prices occurring,” Tchir wrote in a blog post. “Never forget Rule number two of the Three Rules of Bitcoin – ‘There are no rules!’.”
He continues to say that whales and miners, who benefit from higher Bitcoin prices, are given the incentive to push value higher and higher.
The DOJ and the CFTC are currently looking into suspected price manipulation of Bitcoin, which may have occurred due to a lack of regultions in the sector.
Tchir added: “For now, this is yet another reason to expect cryptocurrencies to continue to drift lower. They are losing support and more and more of the issues with them are being exposed – further slowing the rate of adoption.
“Even knowing that manipulation occurs, whether indictable or not, doesn’t mean I can’t get bullish cryptocurrencies again, but certainly not right now.”
