Crytpocurrencies are a threat to the very existence of big banks, but they aren't going to let go without a fight: How the futures market exposes possible market manipulation and what you can do about it.

Photo by Andrew Worley

Imagine a world where everyone has equal power and opportunity to be part of a shared economy, delivered by a technology that takes power from the corrupt middlemen and hands it over to everyone who participates. The goal of cryptocurrencies has always been to create a fairer economic system that removes the vampire-like intermediaries that suck the very life and energy out of society and its economy.

Recently, however, this market has been under serious stress with article after article spreading what many in the space call FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt): headline after headline about how South Korea, China and India plan to crack down hard on cryptocurrency trading and/or mining. Most of these claims are based on words of politicians, but not their actions.

There is little doubt that governments around the world are planning to hit the cryptocurrency market with regulations and restrictions, the results of which are yet to be seen.

However, something else is going on behind the curtains and it is quite concerning: The Wall Street players are possibly manipulating the market and extracting all the profits they can, whilst casting serious doubts for many people on cryptocurrencies fundamentals and long-term viability. Nico Muselle's investigation of the timing around the introduction of the future markets and the ending of the future contracts shows a very clear timeline that could be telling a story of widespread manipulation from the highest level.

The timeline goes as follows:

• On 20th November announcements were spread about the Bitcoin Futures launch on CBOE and CME.
• Shortly after that, the price starts moving up rapidly and the market cap goes parabolic. Could this be the big players who plan to go short on bitcoin when futures are launched?
• After the launch on the CME futures, there was a huge drop in the price of bitcoin. Are these the same people who after shorting bitcoin pulled their money out of the market to create a massive pullback?
• On Jan 17th the CME Futures expired - coincidentally it aligns perfectly with the lowest price for the year - at the same time Bitconnect went belly-up and needed to sell off a mass of Bitcoin.

Have a look at this graph that shows when these events occurred

Of course, it is possible that this is pure coincidence, but it does seem like those who shorted bitcoin in the futures market had suspiciously good market timing.

We do need more data to tell for sure whether the banks invested in the futures markets are pulling the strings of the crypto market. The next date to look out for is the 26th of January when the CME Futures expire. If the markets continue to see a downward turn, with bitcoin testing the $8,000 range, followed by a quick spike upwards, we could be witnessing the big banks playing the crypto space, doing things that are illegal in regulated markets - namely insider trading.

What we can do as a community is to keep a close eye on how big money is influencing cryptocurrencies, making sure we are ahead of their game and we aren't being manipulated out of this market.

Wall Street has a long history of manipulating markets until the fundamentals are destroyed by turning entire world markets into a casino for their pleasure. We can't let that happen to cryptocurrencies. We have to stay focused and steady-handed, to look them right in the eye and beat them at their own game.

I have no doubt that the collective mind of the crypto community is way smarter than these giant institutions. We will not be defeated easily.

Wall Street is undoubtedly looking at everything they can do to break this market, but their influence isn't what it used to be. They have lost a lot of their credibility after 2008, and people quite rightly have lost trust in them.

I will end with this amusing graph showing the timeline of Jamie Dimond's (CEO of JPMorgan) comments on cryptocurrencies over the last few years.