Bitcoin jumps 20 percent, mystery order seen as catalyst
Bitcoin soared to its highest in almost five months on Tuesday, pulling smaller cryptocurrencies up with it, after a major order by an anonymous buyer set off a frenzy of computer-driven trading, analysts said.
The original cryptocurrency soared as much as 20 percent in Asian trading, breaking $5,000 for the first time since mid-November. By mid-afternoon, it had settled around $4,800, still up 16 percent in its biggest one-day gain since April last year.
[...] Today's gain was probably triggered by an order worth about $100 million spread across U.S.-based exchanges Coinbase and Kraken and Luxembourg's Bitstamp, said Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie, chief executive of cryptocurrency firm BCB Group.
"There has been a single order that has been algorithmically-managed across these three venues, of around 20,000 BTC," he said. "If you look at the volumes on each of those three exchanges – there were in-concert, synchronized, units of volume of around 7,000 BTC in an hour".
See also: Bitcoin (BTC) Prices Explode after Fool's Day with "Zero" Fundamentals
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Barenflimski on Wednesday April 03 2019, @04:10AM (2 children)
It sounds to me like if someone wanted to test the market, this is how they would do it. See who had contracts for what at what time. If you see contracts being honored, keep the script going until you find the limit.
For a second I wanted to say that one Anonymous buyer isn't going to fix bitcoin, but you could argue that for a moment, bitcoin was fixed.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Wednesday April 03 2019, @01:53PM
of course a *really* big buyer, could pump the market with an order - and now sell at the inflated rate.
Of course, since bitcoin can be tracked, I am curious as to whether the origins will be found...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @04:45PM
You could argue that for a moment, bitcoin wasn't as broken. But just for a moment.