Slashdot Mirror
Traders Are Talking Up Cryptocurrencies, Then Dumping Them, Costing Others Millions (wsj.com)
Dozens of trading groups are manipulating the price of cryptocurrencies on some of the largest online exchanges, generating at least $825 million in trading activity over the past six months -- and hundreds of millions in losses for those caught on the wrong side, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. From a report: In a review of trading data and online communications among traders between January and the end of July, the Journal identified 175 "pump and dump" schemes involving 121 different digital coins, which show a sudden rise in price and an equally sudden fall minutes later.
A pump-and-dump scheme is one of the oldest types of market fraud: Traders talk up the price of an asset before dumping it for a profit and leaving fooled investors with shrunken shares. The Securities and Exchange Commission regularly brings civil cases alleging pump and dumps using publicly traded stocks. Manipulations of cryptocurrencies are no different, but regulators have yet to bring a case in the more opaque market for them. The SEC declined to comment.
A pump-and-dump scheme is one of the oldest types of market fraud: Traders talk up the price of an asset before dumping it for a profit and leaving fooled investors with shrunken shares. The Securities and Exchange Commission regularly brings civil cases alleging pump and dumps using publicly traded stocks. Manipulations of cryptocurrencies are no different, but regulators have yet to bring a case in the more opaque market for them. The SEC declined to comment.
BS about the investment properties. I worked the foreclosures. I also worked on the massive documentation project going over those loans. Our system has codes as to whether a property was a borrower's primary residence, a second home, or an investment property. Oddly enough, the coding was 1, 2 and 3. Very direct. Although I saw 3s from time to time, the vast majority, across all states, was 1, primary residence. Florida and California had a higher portion, but not even 10% in those states.
So, unless you've worked at a bank that truly had more investment properties being foreclosed than primary residences, please shut the heck up. Indeed, please provide a legitimate source for your statement that "most of the houses foreclosed during the crash were investment properties."
Voluntary exchanges and park muggings are totally the same. The people who made these trades were not coerced and if they value crypto currencies improperly that is their own fault. Would you feel any remorse for them over this or any other investment that turned out a loss through natural shifts in the market?
If people are buying into crypto currencies as a long term investment, this small dip should matter little in the long run. If these people were trying to make short term flips to make money, they are not so different from the people who scammed them. In your analogy they are just other muggers in the park who were themselves mugged.