It is not manipulated. The exchange rate to Dollars is a result of demand & supply. That's it.
If someone was manipulating the exchange rate then there would be a market inefficency which would be an arbitrage opportunity and would get arbitraged away.
The reason the "street price" in p2p meetups is higher is because the increased untraceability of the exchanged fiat has a value. Thus it isn't actually the "street price" that is higher - you're just buying a service in addition to the exchanged Bitcoin.
I advice you not to listen to lunatics that think someone^TM is in control. They're just pathetic loosers that can't handle the feeling of having lost money - which is very indicative that they haven't fully understood Bitcoin and still think in a fiat standard in their heads.
interesting. I'm referring more to the historic price over years as opposed to the arbitrage between exchange/street price though.
saw this thread earlier and gave the video a watch.
the guy is entirely conviced that the entire previous market cycle was essentially whales manipulating the price.
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the guy is entirely conviced that the entire previous market cycle was essentially whales manipulating the price.
It depends on your definition of "manipulation" then. I my book a big whale exchanging is a legit transaction with effects on demand & supply. That's not manipulation, that's just the free market.
It does sound like petty whining to me tho. What's the point, why does he care?
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I think the definition of manipulation would be some groups, individuals, or entities who are able to control the price direction and profit unfairly be exercising undue influence.
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It wasn't whales manipulating prices, lol.. Its because they printed money and handed out to everyone while also paying people not to work!!!! A lot of that money went into "crypto"" and btc. Im sure a lot of PPP money did as well. Just like the housing market and other markets went up.. people bought assets with that NEW money
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I don't think the two are necessarily entirely mutually exclusive. The covid helicopter money could have spurred on the bull market, and whales could have then taken the reigns and controlled the direction of the charge. i'm not saying that is what happened, just playing devils advocate.
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Anything is possible, for sure. Occam's razor says it's probably not a conspiracy from some group of whales though… The simple answer is normal economics playing out.
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