Did SBF really use FTX merchants’ Bitcoin to keep BTC price under $20K?

nestorsauer8 12. October 2023 0

Bitcoin (BTC) failed to hit $100,000 through the 2021 bull market as a result of defunct trade FTX stored promoting BTC, evaluation claims.

In an X (previously Twitter) put up on Oct. 12, Joe Burnett, senior product advertising and marketing supervisor at Bitcoin monetary companies agency Unchained, joined voices arguing that FTX executives suppressed BTC price power.

FTX testimony reveals mass BTC promoting

As the trial of former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried continues, new testimony paints a picture of potential market manipulation.

This week, Caroline Ellison, former CEO of affiliated agency Alameda Research, reportedly instructed the courtroom that Bankman-Fried requested her to promote BTC ought to its spot price breach $20,000. This was finished utilizing FTX buyer funds, which neither had the appropriate to deploy. 

Reacting, Burnett recommended that due to the dimensions of the operations concerned, all the Bitcoin bull run could have been adversely affected.

“Alameda was insolvent even during the bull market. It appears they used (or ‘borrowed’) FTX customer bitcoin and other customer assets to buy ‘Sam coins’ (FTT, Solana, and Serum),” he wrote, referring to stories that Ellison’s agency had a adverse worth of $2.7 billion in 2021.

“Without this fake sell pressure, maybe bitcoin would have hit $100,000 in 2021.”

SBF vs. S2F

During the bull run of 2021, BTC/USD nonetheless reached an all-time high of $69,000; however on the time, predictions referred to as for a lot bigger numbers.

Related: Sam Bankman-Fried blamed Binance for balance sheet leak to media: Court evidence

Among these was the then-popular Stock-to-Flow (S2F) Bitcoin price mannequin, the creator of which — the pseudonymous entity often known as PlanB — gave a BTC price goal of up to $288,000 through the present halving cycle.

The “worst case scenario,” he continued, was $135,000 by December 2021.

After Bitcoin failed to attain these ranges, S2F and PlanB himself each noticed appreciable public criticism.

While PlanB continues to give optimistic outlooks on the place Bitcoin is headed, the SBF debacle is quick turning into a supply of amusement on social media.

Others disagree with Bankman-Fried’s motives. Responding to Ellison’s testimony, Blockstream CEO and co-founder Adam Back queried whether or not he genuinely sought to stifle market progress.

This article doesn’t comprise funding recommendation or suggestions. Every funding and buying and selling transfer entails danger, and readers ought to conduct their very own analysis when making a call.