The vast majority of trading volume was faked.

[SapphireSpire]

https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613201/nearly-all-bitcoin-trades-are-fake-apparently/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-bitcoin-trading-faked-by-unregulated-exchanges-study-finds-11553259600?shareToken=ste90e80f8d18f47cb896491914f06cea3

[blckhawk]

https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613201/nearly-all-bitcoin-trades-are-fake-apparently/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-bitcoin-trading-faked-by-unregulated-exchanges-study-finds-11553259600?shareToken=ste90e80f8d18f47cb896491914f06cea3

This is one problem in these exchanges, and without solid regulatory boards, these exchanges can do anything as they please to lure various altcoins to their exchange, profiting a lot of money. They does it to increase their trading volume and activity, thus making it look like their exchange is highly active, has a lot of user base, and therefore profitable, which is not the true case. Only few exchanges are honest in reporting their trade true trading volumes and these are the ones you can really trust.

[CryptoBry]

That a big part of the trading volume reported by exchanges are actually just manufactured can be a cause of concern because this will have many repercussions as to the future of this expanding cryptocurrency industry. Many exchanges can indeed be involved in wash trading and that is something that can really be discouraging. It is ironic to realize that in that first article, the report was submitted by Bitwise the same firm whose ETF application was recently denied by SEC. They must have a victim of their own truthful reporting. The biggest problem is concentrated on unregulated exchanges as they seem to be thinking that they can do anything with the data without facing legal consequences, though we could not for sure that regulated outfits are not also doing the same thing to a certain degree. Now, I am wondering: What can we do about this sham and what should regulators do to stop this non-sense?

[lobat999]

Faking a trading volume has long been a scheme for exchanges since it is consistent with price manipulation and could influence a trader's perception over the overall "activity" of an exchange - making it more attractive!

This also could influence traders sentiment towards a particular cryptocurrency, in this case, with Bitcoin which in effect could lure traders or projects to list on that particular exchange. Finally, this scheme is tantamount to duping traders since it is also designed to generate more profit in behalf of the exchange itself and I feel the crypto-community should do an initiative to discourage it.

[hello_good_sir]

Guys, please realize that OP posted a link to an article that was posted almost 6 months ago. Both of the articles where from late march of this year, and might not be as accurate as nowadays due to the changing nature of crypto-currencies.

Then again, this is pretty true and it's almost common knowledge to most traders that a lot of volumes is faked or manipulated, when you go on CMC and you see these crazy numbers from Asian exchanges, it gets quite obvious.

Even popular exchanges like Binance and Huobi have been accused of market washing/market manipulation, and it's commonplace in crypto.

[Ferris419]

This is a drawback for the crypto industry and that's why I want to leave Centralized exchange platforms, and this is why we need the DEX at higher rank! Only a very few exchanges have hundred percent real volume, othwerwise, most of them have fake/bot volume. The sad part is, many people follow the CMC rank for the exchange, they think Coinbene, BW, fatbtc are one of the top exchanges, but everyone should know the reality by checking these links and Coingecko's trust score!

[th3nolo]

https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613201/nearly-all-bitcoin-trades-are-fake-apparently/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-bitcoin-trading-faked-by-unregulated-exchanges-study-finds-11553259600?shareToken=ste90e80f8d18f47cb896491914f06cea3

Isn't this old news?

I mean, the story is from March of this year when Bitwise shared its report with the SEC for its ETF proposal.

It doesn't make sense to discuss something like that now

[Casdinyard]

Guys, please realize that OP posted a link to an article that was posted almost 6 months ago. Both of the articles where from late march of this year, and might not be as accurate as nowadays due to the changing nature of crypto-currencies.

Even if it's posted last 6 months, I doubted that it change as we still see first hand that there is still faking of volumes. And that isn't surprising. What I do now is just use CMC to see for the list of sites. I don't easily deposit my coin/token unless I see there's good order.

The sad part is, many people follow the CMC rank for the exchange, they think Coinbene, BW, fatbtc are one of the top exchanges

Seriously? Fatbtc? That's a dead exchange site. I think you're mistaken when you say one of the top.

[pakhitheboss]

Guys, please realize that OP posted a link to an article that was posted almost 6 months ago. Both of the articles where from late march of this year, and might not be as accurate as nowadays due to the changing nature of crypto-currencies.

Then again, this is pretty true and it's almost common knowledge to most traders that a lot of volumes is faked or manipulated, when you go on CMC and you see these crazy numbers from Asian exchanges, it gets quite obvious.

Even popular exchanges like Binance and Huobi have been accused of market washing/market manipulation, and it's commonplace in crypto.

It does not matter if the article is old, most of us know that exchanges have been taking volumes for a long time and no one can do anything about it. Only strict regulation and heft fines can be the answer to these kinds of frauds.

[Ferris419]

Guys, please realize that OP posted a link to an article that was posted almost 6 months ago. Both of the articles where from late march of this year, and might not be as accurate as nowadays due to the changing nature of crypto-currencies.

Even if it's posted last 6 months, I doubted that it change as we still see first hand that there is still faking of volumes. And that isn't surprising. What I do now is just use CMC to see for the list of sites. I don't easily deposit my coin/token unless I see there's good order.

The sad part is, many people follow the CMC rank for the exchange, they think Coinbene, BW, fatbtc are one of the top exchanges

Seriously? Fatbtc? That's a dead exchange site. I think you're mistaken when you say one of the top.

Yes, Fatbtc. If you look regularly at the exchange rank in Coinmarketcap, you would know Fatbtc comes into the top ten rank several times. This is how CMC got manipulated by these shit exchanges! Even today, Fatbtc rank is top 9 in CMC by adjusted volume and 11 by reported volume, you should check now!

[teosanru]

https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613201/nearly-all-bitcoin-trades-are-fake-apparently/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-bitcoin-trading-faked-by-unregulated-exchanges-study-finds-11553259600?shareToken=ste90e80f8d18f47cb896491914f06cea3

Have these news websites ever reported that how much fake volume is being shown by the major stock exchanges around the world? Even with regulation there is a lot of faked volume being generated on these major trading exchanges by various brokers. Crypto is nothing different. It's just a bit easier to fake out here. But I think the major issue is not fake volume being shown main problem is the botty trading happening on exchanges which actually drives the prices up and down in an absolute opposite direction of the anticipation of majority of investors.

[franky1]

'wash trading' is a thing that happens even in fiat markets

the way it works is imagine 3 people want to buy at exactly $8001.12
(a)0.1 (b)0.2(c)0.3 total 0.6
on a market the order line just shows as 0.6 but within this orderline the washtrader(c) always puts their trade first

not only does it mean they can match their sell trade to their buy trade by being first. but also they have more control of setting prices and taking advantage of market changes by being first inline in every deal

i guarantee you if your an outsider putting in an offer, your offer at any price will not be the first inline to 'take'
its how many fiat and crypto exchanges work.no exchange will let its customers benefit first from good market movements.

and its use of this tactic that lets user (c) who is always first inline be able to buy and sell multiple time even when there is no price movement, even when there are other customers waiting for their orders to fill, to be trading before everyone and thus increase the volume before actual users get their orders filled. thus inflating the volume.

exchanges also done ghost orders in the past. which is inverting the 'wash trading' tactic
imagine (a)0.1 (b)0.2(c)0.3 total 0.6 and although the price was $8001.12, they put their order at $8000
with (c) last. thus if the price went down to $8k the orders eat up (a) (b) first.
this means that (c) can put in a big number of say 100 coins and create a 'wall' using ghost funds(made up/fake) so that if the price got near their order they still have time to cancel their order while (a)(b) is getting filled.

this was done most notably by mtgox many years ago to create walls to sway users that its impossible for the price to break below the large wall.  thus people start trading in the opposite direction thinking the wall is good support/resistance barrier

[fiulpro]

The fake trading volume comes from the exchanges who have been trying to get more customers into their business , actually when the sites are showing a high density of trades , people tend to trust it more , everyone's like * see so many people use this already , it cannot be a scam *
Also it is just a business strategy we could see 1000's of examples everyday in today's business , that's just how they think it works..  not everyone is going to be true you know.

[franky1]

Also it is just a business strategy we could see 1000's of examples everyday in today's business , that's just how they think it works..  not everyone is going to be true you know.

even street hustlers playing the 3shell/card trick do similar tactics. they have a 'friend' jump in who pretends to be a stranger, picks the right option to get a win, gets paid the reward and walks off leaving the suckers to think thy have a chance of winning too

its a way to fake looking honest, having more popularity by having more people playing at any time to tempt naive people in by paying out at a win. when reality the pay out/only wins are the hustlers friends

[MURONDI]

This is a cheat exchange strategy to make it look attractive, that is usually done by new exchanges that have few traders, they will do everything they can to attract traders, including volume manipulation..

[Kakmakr]

I do not know why everyone wants to get their panties in a bundle about trades being faked. It is something that has been done by exchanges for many years and it is quite expected when there are a large amount of exchanges, competing for market dominance. 

The regulators should audit the exchanges on a regular basis to highlight this more and to lessen it's affect on the markets. We saw this being done in the early stages in Japan, when that got out of control. A lot of the Japanese and Chinese exchanged were forced to close their doors to force them to stop doing that.   

[Pearls Before Swine]

Can't read the WSJ article without a subscription, but I did read the first paragraph at least.  The key word is 'unregulated' when describing these exchanges that inflate their trading volumes.  Legitimate exchanges won't do it or would even need to. 

I like how they describe the crypto scene as 'nascent' because it really is, especially looking at how many exchanges there are and how little regulation there is.  But honestly I couldn't care less if exchanges lie about trading volume as long as they don't manipulate trades or the prices of coins.  I am assuming they fake volume to make themselves look like a more successful exchange than they actually are...?  I can't think of another reason why they'd do that.

Also it's very good to see bitcoin getting press coverage in a major newspaper like the WSJ.  It just adds a nice shot of affirmation that bitcoin is becoming mainstream.

[coin-investor]

https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613201/nearly-all-bitcoin-trades-are-fake-apparently/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-bitcoin-trading-faked-by-unregulated-exchanges-study-finds-11553259600?shareToken=ste90e80f8d18f47cb896491914f06cea3

This is one problem in these exchanges, and without solid regulatory boards, these exchanges can do anything as they please to lure various altcoins to their exchange, profiting a lot of money. They does it to increase their trading volume and activity, thus making it look like their exchange is highly active, has a lot of user base, and therefore profitable, which is not the true case. Only few exchanges are honest in reporting their trade true trading volumes and these are the ones you can really trust.

P2PB2B is notorious on this they claimed to hit the number one spot but on a survey, they are not even preferred by traders, we should not trust this kind of exchange if we invested in a new coin ask the dev to not submit to that exchange, the community are fully aware what exchanges are doing honest reporting I have new coins listed in P2PB2B but prefer to get it listed a more trustworthy coin, because there are bad reports too about this exchange.

[Wintersoldier]

I do not know why everyone wants to get their panties in a bundle about trades being faked. It is something that has been done by exchanges for many years and it is quite expected when there are a large amount of exchanges, competing for market dominance. 

The regulators should audit the exchanges on a regular basis to highlight this more and to lessen it's affect on the markets. We saw this being done in the early stages in Japan, when that got out of control. A lot of the Japanese and Chinese exchanged were forced to close their doors to force them to stop doing that.   

Basically, it is their way to earn profit in their respective exchange or platform. For me, as long as the manipulation (no matter if people does it or not) is aiming to increase a market price of a certain crypto, it is quite good. But if they are going to manipulate the market through other crypto being affected negatively, I can say, regulation not to the crypto itself is needed, but to the exchange who are controlling the market.

[Wysi]

I do not know why everyone wants to get their panties in a bundle about trades being faked. It is something that has been done by exchanges for many years and it is quite expected when there are a large amount of exchanges, competing for market dominance. 

The regulators should audit the exchanges on a regular basis to highlight this more and to lessen it's affect on the markets. We saw this being done in the early stages in Japan, when that got out of control. A lot of the Japanese and Chinese exchanged were forced to close their doors to force them to stop doing that.   

Basically, it is their way to earn profit in their respective exchange or platform. For me, as long as the manipulation (no matter if people does it or not) is aiming to increase a market price of a certain crypto, it is quite good. But if they are going to manipulate the market through other crypto being affected negatively, I can say, regulation not to the crypto itself is needed, but to the exchange who are controlling the market.

Regulations will keep these sudden manipulation at bay but this might make crypto look like centralized which might lead to exit of some big whales as nobody wants their finances controlled by a third part or government.  I feel we need an independent site which will update us about these suspicious activity so that users can be aware.  But we have to live with these manipulations as that's the only thing which keeps crypto alive.