After seeing bitcoin and most other coins bounce of off a support today, I felt it prudent to compile more information on just what exactly is going on. This morning Charlie Lee tweeted this:
by now I hope at least some of you are aware of the situation regarding tether and its relationship with Bitfinex and bitcoin if not this anonymous message going around will give you a brief summary of whats happening. "This is a message from an insider. I am a member of Chinese whale community. I cannot provide any proofs nor open my identity but I cannot allow myself to stand and watch for the greatest theft from poor and reputation-destruction of blockchain based cryptocurrency to happen.
I have been informed of major Bitcoin manipulation taking place in order to compromise Bitcoin security and reliability. A group of coordinated Chinese investors have a plan to pump Bitcoin to 10000 USD after which they plan on coordinated crash of Bitcoin to sub-1000 levels because they have already taken their fiat money out and replaced them with margin tether traiding. It will not cost them a dollar. They will push Bitcoin below the demand levels.
The situation with Bitfinex and Tethers is legitimate but it is a distraction. Inflated amount of Tethers are not a source of money used for Pump. Bitcoin Cash is the source.
For some reason community accepted 20 Billion dollar appearance out of thin air which is the market capitalization of Bitcoin Cash as the natural process. It is not natural. This artificial money are currently used to cash out Chinese investors and pump original Bitcoin to 10000 USD without taking any losses.
Shortly after Bitcoin crash below 1000 USD they plan to introduce Bitcoin Cash as a true Bitcoin and necessary replacement which is not inflated and then reject Tether pairings. This is why Bitcoin Cash price is stabilized at 1000 USD as was the price of original Bitcoin in January 2017.
This is the operation Dragonslayer in its final stage. They have created billions of dollars with Bitcoin hard forks and use Tether as a tool to artificially bump Bitcoin price cash out their money and coordinate total collapse.
FUD being spread about a bcc group attack using margin."
Whether all this is true or not, is impossible confirm without an auditing by Bitfinex for the time being, but the absolutely insane increase in bitcoin could be attributed to this situation.
Fear is becoming heightened weak hands are becoming more prevalent, at the same time hype is through the roof. There is a clear divide in market sentiment, on one hand, you have new money entering the marketplace hoping to see bitcoin at 20k-50k in the short -midterm along with the potentially fraudulent situation involving tether on the other hand, you have investors that are recognizing unhealthy market growth calling for an ABC correction or even the death of bitcoin altogether given that it's:
- not scaleable
- not anonymous
- not fast
- transaction fees are high
- slower to mine than other coins
So basically bitcoin does not function for any of the applications that it was originally intended for and BTG BTH LTC all do the same thing in a better way. This means that the price of bitcoin is entirely driven by speculation and greed which is not sustainable nor is it safe. The fact that most of the money coming into the marketplace is painfully unaware of these problems is extremely is worrisome.
not to mention you have big players in the media talking to the general public about bitcoin and how much money there is, such as the youtuber Philp Defanco handing out Coinbase referral links, news networks like CNN and countless more. these people neglect to mention how high risk and 10K BTC is, buying in at 10k is one of the riskiest moves you could enter the crypto market with. perhaps they are blissfully unaware as well but it seems to be a little irresponsible.
history is repeating itself those who remember the time period of 2011 - 2013 you will remember that at that time bitcoin rose from $1 all the way to $1000. 
what happened after 1k? it dropped to around $200 per BTC an 80% loss. do these proportions sound familiar? they should because in the time span of around 1 year bitcoin made the same percentage gains. 
But this time it was much faster. this isn't the only time bitcoin has seen a massive drop in value it's eerily and remarkably similar to what we saw between 2011-2013
in short, don't buy into the hype and don't buy into the FOMO (fear of missing out) saving your money during this inevitable downtrend will make 5x more money when you buy back in. Play your cards safely and happy trading.