After going through a series of highs and lows, Bitcoin prices finally managed to reclaim the $21,000 level, which relieved many investors. However, a former official of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says he knows the reason behind the asset’s recent performance.
John Reed Stark, a former SEC member, opined that market manipulation is playing an outsized role in recovering Bitcoin prices. Market manipulation is a common phenomenon in the stock market designed to deceive investors by controlling or artificially affecting the price of securities.
Sharing his thoughts in a tweet, he has also highlighted a Forbes analysis of 157 crypto exchanges. The analysis of the report concludes that roughly half of the reported Bitcoin daily trading volume was likely “bogus,” i.e., fake.
While Bitcoin proponents have highly opposed Stark’s comments, some believe macroeconomic trends have also affected Bitcoin’s momentum. For example, in a recent tweet, Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, a financial service company, suggested two unconventional ideas for why crypto is “ripping.”
Stark counts the following points behind the ripping of the crypto industry. The first was the introduction of rapid liquidity by the Bank of Japan, and the second was China backing away from regulatory enforcement of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
According to Stark, these are the stories to watch this year as it remains unclear what impact such factors will have on Bitcoin’s trajectory as we advance, but the story appears far from its end.
The value of assets in the past months had witnessed a multifold decline stressing miners and investors likely. The miners were trapped in deep concern and despair and were forced to dump their reserves. Todayq News reported data from Glassnode, a blockchain analytics firm when Bitcoin miners dumped over 7.7k Bitcoin within a week. This dump brought about an estimated 10% decrease in their reserves in the mentioned period.
As of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $20,833.50, a 0.22% drop over the past day and a 16.10% gain over the past five days. At this value, Bitcoin remains about 70% down from its all-time high value recorded in November 2021, around $64,000.