Everyone in the crypto community has heard about market bubble and speculations, from the FOMO to FUD cycle supported by banks and paid crypto promoters and haters alike, but did anyone provide us with the systematic proof of how speculation of price might have been built, sustained and used for personal profits in specific periods of speculation using publicly available data?
Until now, it looks like Professor Neil Gandal et.al found suspicious trading activity used by Markus and Willy bots to make fake trades over a period of speculative time in 2013. Their comparative data analysis of USD-BTC price fluctuations based on trading volume and the specific trades by specific traders involved suggests that suspicious trading activity by the 2 bots had a strong influence on the price explosion of BTC from around $150 to $1000 in just 2 months.
How can we be prepared to protect from suspicious fake trades by certain bots in the present and future to assure long term growth over speculative fake growth? Any thoughts, please share.
For more research, visit Prof. Gandal's research publications at https://sites.google.com/site/gandalneil/research
For the specific research paper on BTC trading bot price manipulation in 2013, look for the article, “Price Manipulation in the Bitcoin Ecosystem” that can be purchased from Journal of Monetary Economics unless you subscribe to the journal.
Stay informed, and educated knowing the risks of price manipulation from suspicious trading activities. Happy 2018!