Bitcoin Gold (BTG)’s price is being manipulated by a whale controlling close to half of the circulating supply, says an analysis by an independent trader and analyst, who prefers to remain anonymous.
The trader published findings in a blog post, where they explained they believed a single group of people accumulated their way into a huge Bitcoin Gold position, and are now using that supply to control the market.
The events started in August 2018, when Bitfinex margin long positions began its sharp ascent to include almost two million BTG. The exchange makes its margin data publicly available, which can help gauge the general trader sentiment in a particular coin. In Bitcoin Gold’s case, the strong increase in margin positions was accompanied by lackluster price action, and the price eventually spiraled downward.
The analyst estimated that the 1.9 million BTG held at some point in Bitfinex represents between 38% and 48% of its total circulating supply.
Bitcoin Gold was born in 2017 after a network fork from Bitcoin (BTC), thus maintaining its original history up until that point. This means that Bitcoin Gold contains at least as many inactive coins as its parent, including Satoshi’s cache.
The trader’s report states that over 11 million Bitcoins (BTC) haven’t moved in the last year and as the accumulation was consistent and systematic over the course of almost a year, it would be almost impossible for it to be a coincidence that multiple entities were using the exact same system to accumulate.
The analyst also conducted a manual analysis of the average entry price for the whale. By comparing the number of coins bought each day with their price, he arrived at a figure of $22.86 as the break-even price.
