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Last November, we warned that bitcoin futures should not be approved. The CFTC decided, however, to go ahead and allow the CME and Cboe to begin trading bitcoin futures due to the fact that the exchanges “self-certified” the contracts. Our warning was based on our suspicion that bitcoin futures prices were reliant on prices generated from the underlying cryptocurrency exchanges which are unregulated. Last November, we wrote: “We think that the CME knows that the underlying market for bitcoin is very suspect. We think they know that the bitcoin exchanges have been subject to numerous cases of fraud and theft over the
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The US Justice Department has just launched an investigation into the manipulation of cryptocurrency prices. According to Bloomberg : “The illicit tactics that the Justice Department is looking into include spoofing and wash trading — forms of cheating that regulators have spent years trying to root out of futures and equities markets, the people said. In spoofing, a trader submits a spate of orders and then cancels them once prices move in a desired direction. Wash trades involve a cheater trading with herself to give a false impression of market demand that lures other to dive in too. Coins prosecutors are examining include
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