Scam Sell Off as the Cause of Bitcoin Price Drop?
PlusToken is a ponzi scheme that scammed investors to as much as $2 billion in crypto, Many of its leaders were arrested but authorities could not retrieve the Ponzi’s crypto holdings, including 180,000 BTC.
Bitcoin recently had a steep price decline in the last 2 days and many are suggesting that it is first triggered when scammers from the PlusToken group liquidated their coins.
Bitcoin had a 10% price drop on March 8, 2020 preceded by a 2% drop the previous day. At the time this article is written, Bitcoin continued to slide down and now hovering the $7,800 range. Various publications first attribute the selloff to the global traditional market, which also experienced a “bloody day.” Many also believed that scammers from the PlusToken group also contributed to the selloff.
PlusToken is a ponzi scheme that scammed investors to as much as $2 billion in crypto, Many of its leaders were arrested but authorities could not retrieve the Ponzi’s crypto holdings, including 180,000 BTC.
As reported by Coindesk, the ponzi scheme transferred their 13,000 BTC to mixers, which are systems that try to hide the origin of any Bitcoin. After the BTC are put to mixers, the scammers may have proceed to liquidate them (sell them on various exchanges), which will then cause a steep price drop because suddenly, there are many BTC available for purchase. Ergo Research, in a separate report, said the PlusToken group played a role in pushing the prices of BTC down to $6,500 in 2019.
It is important to factor in the global crash in the traditional markets, caused by pessimism due to the coronavirus outbreak. But 13,000 BTC being put to mixers and then sold on exchanges would have definitely played a factor, said analyst Jacob Canfield.
At the time this article is written, majority of cryptocurrencies are in the red, including Ethereum ($199.42), XRP ($0.21), and Litecoin ($49.77).
Source: Coindesk
This article is published on BitPinas: Scam Sell Off as the Cause of Bitcoin Price Drop?
