May. 18, 2019
Dear Commisoners, I would like to highlight that Bitcoin is not immune to manipulation either by a group, individual or software. As recent as this Friday a Single order of 5000 Bitcoin placed on a single exchange dropped the price of Bicoin by over $1,000 in minutes. To quote Yahoo Finance: "A single large bitcoin (BTC-USD) sale crashed the price of the cryptocurrency by over 10% on Friday. Bitcoin fell from around $7,726 to $6,777 at around 4am ET (8am GMT). By 9.50am ET, the price had recovered slightly to trade around $7,155 but remains down about 9%." "The crash appears to have been caused by a large sell order on Bitstamp, a leading European cryptocurrency exchange." "eToro said the sell order appears to have been around 5,000 bitcoin, which would have been worth around $38.6m at the time the order was placed." Article source: "A 'whale' selling bitcoin crashed the price by $1,000" https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-bitcoin-price-crashed-friday-may-17-bitstamp-whale-141622639.html A further article on this very same news commented that: "....this drop is a stark reminder that cryptoassets still operate in a nascent market, which is susceptible to significant price moves by whales (large holders of cryptocurrency)." Article source: "BITCOIN PRICE ROLLERCOASTER CONTINUES AS VALUE PLUNGES BY $1,000 IN LESS THAN AN HOUR" https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/bitcoin-price-crash-latest-usd-crypto-market-analysis-today-a8918641.html So as you can see if a single entity can move the price of Bitcoin in such a fashion on all exchanges (including the 10 listed in the Bitwise ETF proposal) then the argument that Bitcoin is uniquiely resistant to manipulation is incorrect. Furthermore it demonstrates that is a poor store of value with the volatility it has demonstrated- with its recent meteoric rise and this recent demonstration of what power a single user can wield. It is not mature enough for the SEC to even consider it giving it an ETP status. I am against this whole proposal for obvious reasons. Thanks for your time. Kind Regards, John