Price manipulation of bitcoin is, I think, as possible as it's been done to gold and silver. That's what I don't like about Big Finance getting its hands on crypto.
Though the ETF news is initally pushing BTC higher, sending it about 30% higher since the news broke.
Yes, Tether is not a free market crypto. It's controlled by Tether Limited Inc and if that company goes belly up for any reason, or is discovered to not have backing for the coins it's issued or otherwise found untrustworthy, Tether goes to zero. Since it's not free makret, Tether can freeze wallets at its discretion and I read has done so. Though the reason is alleged ties to child trafficking. If so, then in this case it's freezing wallets for a good cause.
Watched it, but this style of trading is treating crypto as a commodity. I.e. something to be bought and sold for the purpose of making dollar profits. I prefer the buy and hold strategy with a long term view of crypto being a lifeboat for the eventuality of the dollar collapsing.
Gold & silver are of course good and in the event of a complete collapse will outperform everything crypto as well as everything fiat. But short of a complete collapse, Crypto has utility value as a currency which every economy NEEDS to function as an economy. So crypto has no intrinsic value as G&S do, but it does have far better utility value for use as a currency because transactions are instant and payments super precise, whereas G&S have weight & purity issues inhibiting retail use.
G&S are great though. I like both. But crypto has advantages too.
Gold plate is not in their holdings but in the West.
Largest Private Refinery Discovers Gold-Plated Tungsten Bar
March 2, 2010 By Patrick A. Heller
Recently, the German television station ProSieben ran a news story covering W. C. Heraeus in Hanau, Germany, the world’s largest privately owned refinery. In the story, Wilfried Hörner, the head of the gold foundry, shows a 500 gram bar (16.0755 troy ounces) received from an unidentified bank. The bar had the right physical dimensions to be an authentic gold bar, but one of the Heraeus employees suspected something funny. After the bar was cut in half, you can see that the inside is tungsten, with only a coating of gold on the outside.
Last fall, Rob Kirby of Kirby Analytics in Toronto reported that China’s central bank had discovered some 400-ounce gold-plated tungsten bars among those it had recently received from bonded warehouses. It was later learned that at least four counterfeit bars were found and that all had come from sources in the United States. As suspicions grow about counterfeit bars among those held in bonded warehouses for delivery against either COMEX or London Bullion Market Association contracts or shares of exchange traded funds, investors could panic. So, you can understand that there has been almost a total blackout on news coverage on this story.