For example, let's say I want to crash the bitcoin market because I'm the ECB and I'm
worried about my reputation as a Central Bank. This is pretty much the best moment to do so: there is an upcoming economic crisis, people are starting to distrust banks and centralized currencies, and now, an amazing new technology exists that has the potential to change everything, even though it's still too small, nascent, and fragile to do so. With only a few million dollars I could destroy this competitor forever, and then say things like this is "evidence of how hard it is to make a real currency work,"
on the news.
So, the price of btc is rising and I will take advantage of this situation and create something that could look like a bubble by buying millions of dollars worth of btc in a short period of time (say, a few days), which will result in a big increase in the value. Then, I wait one day and start selling and buying "small" amounts of btc just to create an artificial volatility. Meanwhile I tell the media (yes, I am that powerful) to start writing some FUD articles without any real or supportable arguments, but who cares? people will think that other people will believe that shit. Then I make my last move: I sell all my bitcoins over a really short period of time (say, a couple of minutes) at an exponentially lower price.
Now, the market will "recover" for a few hours, but people will be scared about these fluctuations (because they are afraid of loosing all their money on this
strange new virtual currency) and will start selling their bitcoins.
I know this has been discussed many times, but what I am asking is if any research has been done on this topic, and if so where I might be able to find it.
