Researchers have found that a single person was likely to be behind several accounts that bought millions of Dollars worth of Bitcoin, which drove the exchange rate in the US from $150 to $1,000 over a 2 month period in late 2013.

According to a paper by academics from the Berglas School of Economics in Israel and the Tandy School of Computer Science in the U.S. released at the beginning of January, 'suspicious' trades on a world-renowned cryptocurrency exchange were linked to a rise in the exchange rate, while trading volume on all exchanges increased greatly on days with suspicious activity.

The paper, named 'Price Manipulation in the Bitcoin Ecosystem' from the Journal of Monetary Economics, describes suspicious trading activity on the Mt. Gox Bitcoin currency exchange, in which approximately 600,000 bitcoins (BTC) valued at $188 million were fraudulently acquired and used to influence prices. The paper said: "During both periods, the USD-BTC exchange rate rose by an average of four percent on days when suspicious trades took place. compared to a slight decline on days without suspicious activity."

The researchers found that approximately 600,000 Bitcoins, valued at $188 million, were "acquired by agents who likely did not pay for the Bitcoins." One account, named 'Markus', bought a staggering 335,898 bitcoins, worth $76 million, over the course of 225 days.

The paper showed a direct link between fraudulent accounts and price manipulation in the Bitcoin market. Researchers warned that though this took place in 2013, the same kind of manipulation could be occuring in current exchanges too, advising regulators to "begin taking an active oversight role as the Bitcoin ecosystem becomes more integrated into international finance and payment systems."

Today the Bitcoin price fell below $11,600 after touching over $13,500 yesterday, off the back of yesterday's news about South Korea weighing up the possibility of more crackdowns on the market, as well as a Bloomberg report today which said the Chinese government plans to block domestic access to local and offshore platforms that provide centralized trading.

Via: https://invstr.com/

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