Over the past few days, speculation over Bitcoin’s bull run in 2017 being manipulated by the movement of one crypto whale has taken over the community like wildfire.
Tether and Bitfinex were yet again dragged into the controversy, with the crypto-community split on the question of whether manipulation was the reason behind the bull run.
In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Guy Hirsch, Managing Director of eToro, expressed his opinion on the matter of Bitcoin manipulation. Hirsch was quick to point out that crypto-markets are still in their “infancy,” adding that people are yet to comprehend and understand completely how prices and the market work in the ecosystem.
He said,
“In terms of crypto and Bitcoin specifically, We are definitely looking at this and trying to figure out how not to be vulnerable to price manipulation.”
Hirsch also continued to stress on the fact that the virtual asset class is still relatively new. The lack of fundamentals and core consensus metrics in terms of evaluating and tracking the price movement of Bitcoin suggests that market maturity is yet to be attained.
While skeptical, Hirsch admitted that research on the manipulation of Bitcoin was very important, adding that eToro is taking a look at the subject.
During the interview, Hirsch was also asked about eToro tracking various crypto-sentiments and analyzing how it helps predict the market of digital currencies.
The Managing Director responded that the company has introduced a “long-only crypto-sentiment portfolio.” The institution has also entered into a partnership with the TIE, with its partnered entity assessing over 850 million tweets on crypto every day. Sentiment is extremely important for an asset class that is fairly new in the financial landscape, he added.
“We saw that there is a very good indication of the fact that Twitter sentiment or Twitter mentions are correlated or indicative of price movements for crypto assets, and therefore we got convinced to try this strategy on our platform.”
