1Bitcoiner.com

Bitcoin has surged above $30,000 for the first time since June 2022, reviving discussions about the possibility of another cryptocurrency boom. However, this has also reignited fears about market manipulation. Even with this rise, bitcoin is still far below its all-time high of $68,000 in November 2021, and the token has not yet fully recovered from the failure of the Terra stablecoin that caused the “crypto winter”.

Some cryptocurrency enthusiasts are turning to bitcoin as a way of protecting against fears that the entire traditional “fiat” economy might crumble, especially after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the broader contagion it has sparked across financial markets. This has led US venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan to bet $1 million that the price of a single bitcoin would top $1 million by June this year. His claim was that the US dollar would experience hyperinflation, causing the dollar value of a bitcoin to soar.

According to Alex Adelman, the chief executive of the bitcoin rewards app Lolli, Monday’s rally “did not have a clear catalyst”, but it was “a bellwether of bitcoin’s newly bullish market conditions and strong investor confidence”. Nevertheless, the rise in bitcoin prices has also led to concern about market manipulation, such as “wash trading” and fraudulent activities, which could influence the cryptocurrency’s pricing.

In June 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission refused permission to launch a bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund after concluding that it was impossible to prevent fraud and manipulation in the market from affecting the price. Wash trading, the practice of selling cryptocurrencies between related parties to influence the reported price, averaged “over 70% of the reported volume” on 29 unregulated exchanges, according to a 2022 report by the US National Bureau of Economic Research.

Despite the concerns about market manipulation, widely followed quantitative analyst PlanB believes that Bitcoin is in the early days of a fresh bull market. PlanB highlights that the relative strength indicator (RSI) suggests that BTC is in a bull market, as the momentum indicator is hovering above the 50 level, which has historically marked the start of a new bull cycle. PlanB’s stock-to-flow (S2F) trading model also predicts that the price of BTC will eventually reach greater heights.