On High Seas of Bitcoin Trading, Whales Still Make Waves

Single traders appear to still have an outsized influence on the bitcoin market.
Thus far in September, analysts have cited single traders as the likely cause of two significant price movements, both of which point to liquidity problems in the nascent market. In a time when bitcoin markets are characterized by low trading volume and speculation, bitcoin prices have become vulnerable to the point where either a single buyer or one, large transaction can trigger sizeable shifts.
For example, on Sunday, 11th September, bitcoin prices plunged more than 5% in less than an hour, according to BPI data.
During just a half-hour session, the digital currency fell from $628.14 at 19:00 UTC to $595.43 by 19:30 UTC.
Here, analysts cited low trading volume and a highly speculative market when explaining this sharp drop, asserting that a single large transaction was likely to have helped fuel this decline.

This post was published at Coin Desk on September 14, 2016.