pump and dump - Pwim.Net

Bitcoin Crowned ‘Most Viewed Asset in the US’ Last Month, Along with Tesla Stock

This week, Bitcoin surged in the market again, recording new highs that have not been seen of the digital asset since June of last year.

Bitcoin Breaks Record in 2020

Needless to say, investors have been closely monitoring Bitcoin (BTC)’s bullish behavior in the market after the digital asset surprised the cryptocurrency community by pulling itself out of a long-time slump last month. On the Luxembourg-based Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp, BTC’s market value hit $12,470 per coin, surging by almost 4%, much to the delight of crypto enthusiasts,. Shortly after the digital asset’s bull run, its price descended slowly again, falling back to a more stable level.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is reported to have passed the $11,500 mark and is valued at $11,928. Investors are anticipating its reach past the $12,000 level in the market.

David Portnoy Talks Bitcoin, BTC Surges

The latest Bitcoin rally was observed after American celebrity and avid trader David ‘Davey Day Trader’ Portnoy came forward and publicly invited the Winklevoss twins to teach him about Bitcoin. The Barstool Sports founder admitted that he had absolutely “no idea what he was doing” when it came to Bitcoin, saying that he had a digital wallet somewhere but that he had lost the keys.

Since then, Bitcoin has rallied and gained over 30% in the last month, according to Forbes. Data findings released by TradingView analysts also indicated that Bitcoin was reportedly the most viewed financial asset in the US last month, trailing behind Tesla stocks.

Tesla, Elon Musk’s prized project, also had a bull run of its own on Monday, following an analysis regarding their yearly price target. Since its gains on the stock market, Tesla has fallen back down a little and maintained a more stable price level.

‘Digital Gold’ Bitcoin in Wall Street Spotlight

David Portnoy’s shared content regarding Bitcoin seems to have triggered a bull run for BTC, as traders were perceived to have renewed interest in the digital asset, starting with Wall Street big-timers and corporate firms directing more attention towards Bitcoin. One BTC advocate is billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones. With the ongoing depreciation of the US dollar sending Bitcoin’s price over the roof, the billionaire had tweeted his regrets and publicly stated yesterday:

“My bet on #bitcoin as a safe haven against the deteriorating dollar is doing incredibly well. My only regret is not buying more. I believe this rise in price we’re seeing is far from over. In fact, it’s just getting started!”

Mixed Views on Portnoy’s Bitcoin Strategy

Though Portnoy’s enthusiasm is welcomed and embraced by some Bitcoin advocates, such as BTC billionaires and Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the Davey Day Trader has also received divided criticism on other ends.

For example, a FxPro senior analyst shared with Forbes that the interest in Tesla and Bitcoin was spurred by ‘fear-of-missing-out’ (FOMO) investors, who are afraid of missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with Bitcoin’s recent bullish behavior. Alex Kuptsikevich said, “This is almost like a rookie game against the pros. Professionals do not see the ‘business’ in bitcoin and massively short Tesla, a company that accrued massive losses for years and has a tiny share on the overall car market.”

Other cryptocurrency analysts called Portnoy’s “pump and dump” strategy a terrible idea, saying that “it was not a good look for the community,” as they thought that this would devalue digital assets. Famous host of “The Wolf of All Streets” podcast and Bitcoin advocate Scott Melker brought up the question of whether “Davey Day Trader taking the crypto world by storm” was a good thing.

While some investors are saying that Dave Portnoy is bringing good publicity to Bitcoin and prompting its bullish rally, others are arguing that this would lead to a surge and subsequent crash of the cryptocurrency, with new investors who are looking to get rich quickly and through a shortcut suddenly investing heavily in Bitcoin.

This may subsequently lead to a potential “boom and bust” for Bitcoin.

Barstool Sports Founder Dave Portnoy to Dump Bitcoin and Chainlink (LINK) After $25,000 Loss

Online sports celebrity and founder of Barstool sport Dave Portnoy announced that he might be quitting crypto trading, after purchasing $200,000 in Bitcoin and a huge quantity of other cryptocurrencies such as Chainlink (Link) just a week ago.

Portnoy took to his Twitter account on August 21 and said that he sold off all of his holdings in cryptocurrencies, which he recently bought on August 13. He stated that he now owns zero Bitcoin (BTC).

Panic Selling Ruins Bull Run

Portnoy hosted the Winklevoss twins at his home on August 13, who explained to him thoroughly how cryptocurrency trading works. The meeting event enabled the Gemini co-founders to introduce Portnoy into crypto trading. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss not only explained the basics of Bitcoin to Portnoy but also taught him how to trade on the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange.

Portnoy had already deposited $250,000 into his Gemini account before the twins had arrived. The meeting with the twins then resulted in Portnoy investing $200,000 worth of Bitcoin and allocating $50,000 to Chainlink (LINK). A few days later, he boasted on social media, touting that he was the king of Bitcoin after gaining $98,000 in profits from BTC cryptocurrency.

He then began to annoy Bitcoin users by trying to promote small-time altcoin Orchid (OXT) on social media and urged his followers to buy the cryptocurrency. Since Portnoy has more than 1.7 million followers on social media, his promotion of the cryptocurrencies appears to have influenced the valuation of certain cryptos on the markets. But the more seasoned crypto investors on Twitter did not seem to take the bait.

Portnoy’s purchase of $50,000 worth of Chainlink token (LINK) did not go as planned as the altcoin saw a 30% decline amid a market correction for the decentralized oracle network. This resulted in a loss of $25,000 for the “Davey Day Trader”, an incident that angered him. Consequently, he announced that he might well be done with cryptocurrencies, for good.

Common Trading Tips Traders Ignore

The rule of “buy low” and “sell high” is the basic formulae for trading. This applies to a pattern of crypto prices, which shifts between certain price points. Portnoy appears to not have followed this simple rule, with Bitcoin bulls such as crypto analyst Scott Melker criticizing the Barstool Sports founder for his market trading tactics. Certain analysts referred to Portnoy’s “pump and dump” strategy as was criticized by Bitcoin bulls such as devaluating for the crypto community.

This case scenario seems to be of bad timing and unfortunate, as Portnoy purchased cryptocurrencies at the top of the current bull cycle, but panicked when the assets began to decline in value on the crypto market.

His initiation into cryptocurrency trading has put a spotlight on the reality of price volatility that still exists in markets. The crypto community responded by labeling him as weak for not being able to tolerate the downsides of cryptocurrency trading.

WallStreetBets and Telegram Group Plan Coordinated Buying Attack on Ripple's XRP For February

WallStreetBets (WSB) along with a Telegram group called “Buy & Hold XRP FEB 1st, 2021” are planning a new coordinated buying attack on XRP which is set to be executed around 8:20EST.

Coordinated buying attacks are multiplying and spreading throughout the cryptocurrency sector inspired by members of a Reddit Forum called WallStreetBets.

Over the last week, traders have been emboldened and inspired by a group of amateur day traders based on a Reddit forum called WallStreetBets (WSB), who recently launched a coordinated buying attack on the video game retailer Gamestop, triggering a short squeeze and inflicting heavy losses for hedge funds like Melvin Capital.

New groups of coordinated traders on Telegram has now joined forces with WSB and have managed to push the XRP price higher over the past three days and the Ripple associated token was up by over 100% from $0.2478 to $0.5100.

XRP price is currently trading at $0.48 according to CoinMarketCap, but according to discussions on Telegram, the crypto’s price could surge massively on February 1st at 8:20 EST as “Buy & Hold XRP FEB 1st, 2021” and WSB are promoting a coordinated pump and dump.

From DOGE to XRP

As WSB traders put the short squeeze on hedge funds with their coordinated buying attack on GameStop and AMC stock last week, exchanges came under pressure to halt retail trading. The Reddit discussion group r/Wallstreetbets, then focused its army of investors put the squeeze on silver and a selection of cryptocurrencies starting with Dogecoin (DOGE).

On Jan. 28, Dogecoin briefly soared into the top 10 cryptos by market cap and saw a 980% pump of the DOGE price. DOGE hit a peak on of 0.087 and then say an immediate 68% retracement.

Although DOGE has rallied another 26% in the last 24 hours to $0.037, WSB and a number of Telegram groups appear fixated on XRP.

Ripple’s Response to SEC Not the Catalyst

Ripple filed an official reply to the lawsuit it faces from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—demands the agency to release documents explaining why Bitcoin and Ethereum – the two most popular cryptocurrencies – are not securities.

Ripple filed a 93-page response on Friday, January 29 in a Manhattan court. The company’s official response comes after the Commission sued the crypto firm and two of its directors, claiming that they sold unlicensed securities through XRP cryptocurrency.

While XRP’s surprising weekend bull run was initially regarded to be a response to Ripple’s own response to the US regulators, Venture Coinist’s Luke Martin who tried to identify the reason behind this XRP price surge, noted that he believes the group responsible for pushing DOGE price higher was now shifting focus to XRP.

Martin tweeted:

It pains me to say this….it really does…but it looks like the hot ball of money that pumped $DOGE has started to move into $XRP.
$XRP is up 20% in the last 2 hours while the rest of the market is flat.

As the XRP price continued to grow, Martin grew more sure of his analysis and tweeted again alluding to WSB and coordinated buying attacks. He said:

“$XRP up 50% in a day because of its amazing fundamentals…just like Gamestop.”

According to the discussions on Telegram, the XRP pump and dump is expected to further pump on February 1st at 8:20 EST, how the crypto market will react if this occurs and whether or not XRP sees a rapid price gain remains to be seen but will be worth observing as coordinated buying attacks gain more traction with retail investors.

Ripple’s XRP Crashes Following Pump and Dump Scheme Coordinated by Telegram Group

Ripple’s XRP has crashed following its temporary ascent to $0.74 yesterday.

After weeks of consolidating below the $0.30 level following the SEC lawsuit, XRP surged over the weekend thanks to a coordinated buying attack orchestrated by a Telegram group called “Buy & Hold XRP FEB 1st, 2021.”

The traders were inspired by WallStreetBets, a Reddit forum who launched a coordinated buying attack last week causing GameStop (GME) shares to shoot through the roof. The bull run, triggered by amateur day traders, had caused a short squeeze which resulted in heavy losses for hedge funds like Melvin Capital.

Pump and dump causes XRP to retrace

The surge in GME shares has also ricocheted off the cryptocurrency sector, as following the surge of GameStop, Dogecoin underwent a bull run as well. As some noted, the focus quickly shifted from DOGE to XRP. The distinction between the two may be that Dogecoin’s price surge could be attributed to retail investors’ fear of missing out, while in XRP’s case, it is a classic example of a pump and dump. Founder of Nugget News, Alex Saunders, said:

“FOMO vs PUMP & DUMP: When $DOGE retraced 78.6%, On Balance Volume showed bullish divergence. It then went up. In comparison, heavy selling of $XRP at higher prices has created bearish divergence in On Balance Volume. As I said yesterday, expect a full retrace on XRP.”

Analyst says XRP surge not due to Telegram

Although most attributed XRP’s price rise to be due to the efforts of the Telegram Group pushing the XRP price higher, others were not as convinced. Credible Crypto said:

“For some context – let’s run the numbers. 24H volume on XRP today was over 26B. Even if EACH of the groups members dropped $5,000 on XRP today that equates to 2% of total daily volume. Let’s be rational here – no telegram group is pumping the 5th largest coin in space.”

The pump and dump was short-lived in any case, as the digital token lost more than half of its value within a matter of hours.

The fact that XRP gained over the weekend has also been speculated to be a strong response to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s lawsuit. The agency is currently suing Ripple for the sale of unregistered securities in the form of XRP tokens.

Liquidity in XRP

Currently, XRP is trading at $0.3433 on CoinMarketCap, falling sharply after having experienced a rise of more than 100% over the weekend. Nevertheless, its current price level may still be somewhat of a win, as it has managed to break through the psychological barrier of $0.30.

Jesse Proudman, CEO of crypto hedge fund Strix Leviathan, attributed the sharp drop in price to be due to XRP’s lack of liquidity. He explained that the only reason that pump and dumps could occur for XRP were because XRP’s liquidity has “become incredibly thin,” with major exchanges delisting the digital token. He added:

“This lack of liquidity creates opportunities for global communities to coordinate pump and dumps which is exactly what the price action appears to indicate is happening.”