{"id":7469,"date":"2018-06-14T02:38:29","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T02:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?p=7469"},"modified":"2018-06-14T02:38:29","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T02:38:29","slug":"research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Report Points Finger At Tether For Bitcoin\u2019s Rise In December"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2009 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bitcoin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"380\" height=\"250\" \/>A research report published by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student, have raised doubts as to whether the sharp rise in the price of Bitcoin in December 2017 has links to the non-transparent business practices of Tether founders. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/cryptocurrency\">Tether is a cryptocurrency pegged<\/a> to the US dollar on a 1:1 ratio. Bitcoin, which recorded a high of $20,000 in December, has already lost more than 60% of its value to trade at about $6,300.<\/p>\n<p>Griffin runs a consulting firm that investigates fraud cases using algorithmic analysis. Using the same analysis technique, Griffin and his colleague studied the meteoric rise of Bitcoin\u2019s price last year. The study concluded that the rise in the price of of Bitcoin is not an organic event, but an outcome of purchases made by Tether, which artificially provided the support. According to the Griffin, such artificial demand led to the dramatic increase in the price of Bitcoin.<\/p>\n<p>It can be remembered that cryptocurrency exchange <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-01-30\/crypto-exchange-bitfinex-tether-said-to-get-subpoenaed-by-cftc\">Bitfinex was subpoenaed by the US CFTC<\/a> on December 6, 2017. Both Bitfinex and Tether are owned by Giancarlo Devasini and Philip Potter. The duo has not provided the name of the bank where it holds the US dollar reserves that technically backs the Tether tokens.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Griffin<\/strong> states<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cFirst, if the Tether founders, like most early cryptocurrency adopters and exchanges, are long on Bitcoin, they have a large incentive to create an artificial demand for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by &#8216;printing&#8217; Tether. Similar to the inflationary effect of printing additional money, this can push cryptocurrency prices up. Second, the coordinated supply of Tether creates an opportunity to manipulate cryptocurrencies. When prices are falling, the Tether creators can convert their Tether into Bitcoin in a way that pushes Bitcoin up and then sell some Bitcoin back into dollars to replenish Tether reserves as Bitcoin price rises. Finally, if cryptocurrency prices crash, Tether creators essentially have a put option to default on redeeming Tether, or to potentially experience a \u2019hack\u2019 where Tether or related dollars disappear. Both the \u2019pushed\u2019 and \u2019pulled\u2019 alternatives have different testable implications for flows and cryptocurrency returns that we can take to the powerful blockchain data.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Bitcoin has exhibited similar spikes in previous years. In 2013, the price rose sharply to about $700. <a href=\"https:\/\/weis2017.econinfosec.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/05\/WEIS_2017_paper_21.pdf\">A study conducted on the short-lived rally<\/a> alleges the now defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt.Gox as the price manipulator. Before the main stream media and crypto enthusiasts became suspicious of price manipulation, the Reddit community sounded alarm bells in November 2017. The community expressed concerns of probable bad practices by Bitfinex.<\/p>\n<p>While there is no conclusive evidence to back Griffin\u2019s argument, it should be noted that the study report was based on statistical analysis of millions of transaction data on Bitcoin\u2019s blockchain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A research report published by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student, have raised doubts as to whether the sharp rise in the price of Bitcoin in December 2017 has links to the non-transparent business practices of Tether founders. Tether is a cryptocurrency pegged to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","category-usa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Research Report Points Finger At Tether For Bitcoin\u2019s Rise In December<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A research report published by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student, have raised doubts as to whether the sharp rise in the price of Bitcoin in December 2017 has links to the non-transparent business practices of Tether founders.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Research Report Points Finger At Tether For Bitcoin\u2019s Rise In December\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A research report published by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student, have raised doubts as to whether the sharp rise in the price of Bitcoin in December 2017 has links to the non-transparent business practices of Tether founders.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-14T02:38:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bitcoin.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cameron Bishop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cameron Bishop\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cameron Bishop\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0e2e077765174748afc2362c890e3f91\"},\"headline\":\"Research Report Points Finger At Tether For Bitcoin\u2019s Rise In December\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-14T02:38:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":470,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/bitcoin.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Cryptocurrency\",\"USA\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\\\/\",\"name\":\"Research Report Points Finger At Tether For Bitcoin\u2019s Rise In December\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/bitcoin.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-14T02:38:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0e2e077765174748afc2362c890e3f91\"},\"description\":\"A research report published by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student, have raised doubts as to whether the sharp rise in the price of Bitcoin in December 2017 has links to the non-transparent business practices of Tether founders.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/bitcoin.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/bitcoin.jpg\",\"width\":380,\"height\":250},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0e2e077765174748afc2362c890e3f91\",\"name\":\"Cameron Bishop\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f635e871248df28d6828ec38af2b48c04796e65e714639cfa0c2d3d1c91b0bc7?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f635e871248df28d6828ec38af2b48c04796e65e714639cfa0c2d3d1c91b0bc7?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f635e871248df28d6828ec38af2b48c04796e65e714639cfa0c2d3d1c91b0bc7?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cameron Bishop\"},\"description\":\"Cameron works tirelessly behind the scenes ensuring his many US news stories are factual, informative and brought to you in a timely fashion before most other media outlets have them. He is an investigative journalist at heart who also has a fond interest in the money and business markets too.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/cameron-bishop\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Research Report Points Finger At Tether For Bitcoin\u2019s Rise In December","description":"A research report published by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student, have raised doubts as to whether the sharp rise in the price of Bitcoin in December 2017 has links to the non-transparent business practices of Tether founders.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Research Report Points Finger At Tether For Bitcoin\u2019s Rise In December","og_description":"A research report published by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student, have raised doubts as to whether the sharp rise in the price of Bitcoin in December 2017 has links to the non-transparent business practices of Tether founders.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/","article_published_time":"2018-06-14T02:38:29+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bitcoin.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Cameron Bishop","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cameron Bishop","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/"},"author":{"name":"Cameron Bishop","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/0e2e077765174748afc2362c890e3f91"},"headline":"Research Report Points Finger At Tether For Bitcoin\u2019s Rise In December","datePublished":"2018-06-14T02:38:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/"},"wordCount":470,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bitcoin.jpg","articleSection":["Cryptocurrency","USA"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/","name":"Research Report Points Finger At Tether For Bitcoin\u2019s Rise In December","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bitcoin.jpg","datePublished":"2018-06-14T02:38:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/0e2e077765174748afc2362c890e3f91"},"description":"A research report published by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student, have raised doubts as to whether the sharp rise in the price of Bitcoin in December 2017 has links to the non-transparent business practices of Tether founders.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/research-report-points-finger-at-tether-for-bitcoins-rise-in-december\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bitcoin.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bitcoin.jpg","width":380,"height":250},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/","name":"","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/0e2e077765174748afc2362c890e3f91","name":"Cameron Bishop","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f635e871248df28d6828ec38af2b48c04796e65e714639cfa0c2d3d1c91b0bc7?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f635e871248df28d6828ec38af2b48c04796e65e714639cfa0c2d3d1c91b0bc7?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f635e871248df28d6828ec38af2b48c04796e65e714639cfa0c2d3d1c91b0bc7?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","caption":"Cameron Bishop"},"description":"Cameron works tirelessly behind the scenes ensuring his many US news stories are factual, informative and brought to you in a timely fashion before most other media outlets have them. He is an investigative journalist at heart who also has a fond interest in the money and business markets too.","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/author\/cameron-bishop\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}