Exchanges are guilty of preventing Bitcoin mass adoption

[Baofeng]

Ever since bitcoin started to gain some 'notoriety', or at least from $.1-$1k, there have been reported of manipulation already from exchange, if they are guilty and this is the one preventing bitcoin from getting adopted, then by that time, we won't see a year-to-year dramatic rise of the price. But what happens? A lot of exchanges started to pump up and as a result bitcoin grow to even hit all time high at almost $20k in 2017? And still up to this point, it is growing massively, so I don't buy the argument that exchanges are one factors that prevents it from being mass adopted.

[verita1]

Peter Schiff is a great defender of gold, he will not allow Bitcoin to be included in his company. The simple fact that he has admitted an intermediary to process payments in Bitcoin is because surely his clients have demanded to pay with Bitcoin. The other point about the exchanges they are the first to wish a massive adoption of Bitcoin, in fact the exchanges compete with offering users to earn more with their Bitcoin and crypto.
Although giving the benefit of the doubt as in any business, not everything is revealed.

[hatshepsut93]

What other proves do we need when just by barely observing the market it's very obvious some manipulation are ongoing. Talk about inside trading, if altcoins get traded by insiders with valuable information on some positive development on the project like new exchange listing, major news etc talk more of bitcoin that can be easily dumped or pumped by the whales which obviously exchanges are part of. Tether can be printed from thin air and used to buy the bottom occasionally probably pushing the price upwards. Exchanges like bitfinex is guilty of this.

OP is talking about Bitcoin, not altcoins. Of course altcoins  are manipulated due to their centralized nature and low volumes and generally they are very scammy. But no one can easily manipulate Bitcoin, it's way too big already. Even Tether, whatever is going on with it, can't influence Bitcoin in the long run.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

OP is talking about Bitcoin, not altcoins. Of course altcoins  are manipulated due to their centralized nature and low volumes and generally they are very scammy. But no one can easily manipulate Bitcoin, it's way too big already. Even Tether, whatever is going on with it, can't influence Bitcoin in the long run.

Well the altcoin explanation was used to stressed my point. The fact is the exchanges can manipulate the market by creating either bullish or bearish scenarios although that's not a regular occurrence. Few days back, OKEx exchange suspended crypto withdrawal as one of the key holders was missing which was later discovered that Star Xu got taken by the police. Bitcoin saw a flash panic sell that dipped the price from $11.5k to $11.2k although some recovery has occured.

Exchanges can easily cause panic in the market and this isn't the first such scenario has be observed. Few years back, Bitcoin suffers wild weekend after yet another Tether scandal. There are many more events like this that the market has experience some downtrend as a result of a particular exchange.

The bitcoin market though is getting nature as not all exchange related event have an impact on the market that easily but their influence can still be felt.

[dificanovi]

I strongly believe exchanges are playing a negative role in the space, mainly because of price manipulation. And if -like in any society- evil doers are not going to pay a heavy price, we all stand a lesser chance to succeed in our investment. There should not be a possibility for someone to short or long a crypto, sell or buy, unless he really holds it!
I watched this debate between Peter Schiff (Gold bug) and Anthony Pompliano (Bitcoin bug), a rare piece of what you call a high quality debate that you could barely watch these days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wigz8z6Vm3U

In this debate, Peter Schiff said yes his company lists Bitcoin as a payment option but they don't accept it themselves, they have instead a payment provider called Bybit that pays them in dollars. Which makes Bitcoin of course more expensive to pay with since you now have a middle man.

And I think he's right in not accepting Bitcoin. Exchanges would pump the hell out of Bitcoin, dump all the bitcoins they could possibly have to buy gold and then let the market return to its normal place again.... This of course plays against Bitcoin mass adoption.

most crypto exchanges also often manipulate market prices so that they can make a profit and so that investors like the exchange so that there are many buying and selling transactions.
For companies that are not too big and have little capital, it is very risky if they make payments with bitcoin because if there is a decrease in the price of bitcoin in the crypto market it will get a loss.

[davis196]

You are kinda wrong with this theory.Price manipulation in the cryptocurrency markets cannot stop or prevent mass crypto adoption,because it has nothing to do with cryptocurrency adoption.
Crypto exchanges aren't guilty for the KYC policies,which are a regulatory requirement.They aren't guilty for the fact that fiat/BTC transactions are still very risky and expensive(with higher risk comes a higher price/fee).
I know that crypto trading platforms are not perfect and still have lots of flaws,but they can't be blamed for stopping a process,that could potentially bring them more revenue.

[bitterguy28]

Exchanges are giving mass adoption for the world. Its a pretty easy entry point for newbies and they are buying a lot of crypto ads in some countries to share information about crypto for the ordinary people

I think the OP is seeing it differently. Exchanges are promoting crypto adoption as you said they open doors to newbies and of course to old timers as well. The more exchanges we have, the wider options that the community can go to. But only few of them are to be trusted as a lot of them will screw the users' funds.

another idea is that OP wanted to put the blame in exchange regarding manipulation of prices in which legit exchange can't do because users are eyeing on them.
But in some point it is true because the exchange has a good part in which the bitcoin will be adopted together with altcoins.
and also promoting of bitcoin is not only from exchange but from us also.

[Lucius]

This is just a conspiracy theory, you show zero proof that exchanges are manipulating the price, yet you state it as a proven fact and draw some conclusions from it. It's not even possible, because you'd need to have all major exchanges conspire together, which is extremely unlikely to happen. There's a simple explanation for Bitcoin's bubbles - they just happen because Bitcoin is still new, so there are waves of enthusiasm and subsequent corrections.

You don’t necessarily need all the crypto-exchange to unite in some evil intent - we all know it’s enough for Coinbase to go offline for some time or that Binance stop working for a few hours, the price drops instantly. At that point, someone can start buying BTC and just wait for the right moment to sell at a much higher price when things return to normal.

Behind all these operations are ordinary people, and we all know that today the information has the highest price - the one who knows that tomorrow the price of BTC will fall 5% is in a much bigger advantage than you or me. If you ask me crypto exchanges have too much power in their hands, and they behave no differently than ordinary banks - but fiat and crypto are two different worlds, many have unfortunately not yet learned that.

[pixie85]

So OP thinks it's the exchanges that control the market and they own all the coins deposited by users and play around with them in a great ruse to buy all physical gold and stuff and then crash the price of bitcoin because they think it's worthless.

They build their multimillion dollar businesses on something they don't believe in and don't care about. It was all a big hoax

[bryant.coleman]

I can't agree with OP. There are hundreds, if not thousands of cryptocurrency exchanges around the world. In order to manipulate the prices, the whales need to rig all of these exchanges. It is very impractical. They may be able to do that with some of the less known shitcoins, which are traded in two or three exchanges. But I don't think that it is possible to rig the trading with the top-10 or top-20 cryptocurrencies.

[DooMAD]

Maybe OP got their wires crossed somewhere and has the wrong impression.  Exchanges have definitely been known to falsify their declared volume, because it's quite easy for them to manipulate that.  But I don't think they're in a position to manipulate the price.  That would be a far more challenging feat.

There were certainly times in the past where price manipulation was viable.  Take Gox's "Willy Bot", for instance.  But now, since many regular traders are using bots of their own, the impact is diminished.  The dangers of HFT in the fiat world are being replicated on exchanges, though.  That is a problem overall.

[shield132]

One can say whatever one wants (badly) about crypto exchanges, but the fact is that these companies are the entry point into the world of cryptocurrencies for most of those who own them today. On the other hand, it is undeniable that these companies are not regulated, as is the case with banks - but when the authorities want to intervene and regulate this business sector, most crypto users oppose it because it threatens their privacy and reduces Bitcoin decentralization.

When it comes to price manipulation, crypto exchanges certainly have a chance to pull certain moves, but does anyone expect to say Coinbase dump about 1 million BTC it has in its possession, buy gold for that money and then live long and happily without any repercussions? It is something that belongs to the conspiracy theory, but one that has a sci-fi sign, and is not realistically achievable in the real world.

I agree with you. It's paradox when people request bitcoin exchanges to be regulated and at the same time they still want to stay anonymous and complain that regulations will affect their privacy.
Btw the problem is that exchanges really try bad things. For example, binance bought coinmarketcap, the major cryptocurrency price checker. So, I think it's unfair agreement and is not good for cryptocurrencies.

But, I don't agree with the subject of this topic. Exchanges aren't preventing bitcoin mass adoption, I think it's even in their interest to see bitcoin mass adopted and get as much customers as possible.

[hatshepsut93]

Well the altcoin explanation was used to stressed my point. The fact is the exchanges can manipulate the market by creating either bullish or bearish scenarios although that's not a regular occurrence. Few days back, OKEx exchange suspended crypto withdrawal as one of the key holders was missing which was later discovered that Star Xu got taken by the police. Bitcoin saw a flash panic sell that dipped the price from $11.5k to $11.2k although some recovery has occured.

Exchanges can easily cause panic in the market and this isn't the first such scenario has be observed. Few years back, Bitcoin suffers wild weekend after yet another Tether scandal. There are many more events like this that the market has experience some downtrend as a result of a particular exchange.

The bitcoin market though is getting nature as not all exchange related event have an impact on the market that easily but their influence can still be felt.

These 2-3% drops are irrelevant in the long run, and even in a few weeks everyone will forget about OKEx. Even if exchanges contribute to some price movements, like doing manipulation or just because of their influence, they still aren't the only factor that makes Bitcoin volatile, and it's probably one of the least common reasons why BTC price goes up or down. So, they don't prevent mass adoption by causing volatility, like OP says.

[Shasha80]

I don't agree that exchanges prevent Bitcoin mass adoption from happening, because many people are buying Bitcoin on exchanges
for the first time. So exchanges helped many newbies buy Bitcoin, I am one of the people who bought Bitcoin for the first time on
exchanges. And exchanges help the crypto community to promote and spread Bitcoin. So to say that exchanges are guilty of preventing
Bitcoin mass adoption is unlikely.

[ralle14]

If those are the actual plans of bitcoin exchanges isn't it going to be harder for them to manipulate the price in the future since more people are starting to accumulate their bitcoin stash as well. Exchanges might have the power to do something like that but at the same time it would also hurt their business if they do decide to pull those kind of actions.

[tanjiran]

If those are the actual plans of bitcoin exchanges isn't it going to be harder for them to manipulate the price in the future since more people are starting to accumulate their bitcoin stash as well. Exchanges might have the power to do something like that but at the same time it would also hurt their business if they do decide to pull those kind of actions.

Moreover, users will definitely prefer an exchange with a more reasonable transaction fee, if the service and security are the same, surely the cheaper one will be chosen. This is a market competition between exchanges. DEX also comes with a more effective system, which is why DEX and defi so popular these days. what is clear, bitcoin has more advantages related to conventional transactions. With all the advantages it gets, I think it's worth the level of security, speed, and transparency in this system.

[FinneysTrueVision]

I think the stringent KYC requirements are far more harmful. The unbanked population are the ones most likely to use bitcoin as a payment method but they have very few ways for them to acquire it without having to jump through hoops.

[avikz]

I strongly believe exchanges are playing a negative role in the space, mainly because of price manipulation. And if -like in any society- evil doers are not going to pay a heavy price, we all stand a lesser chance to succeed in our investment. There should not be a possibility for someone to short or long a crypto, sell or buy, unless he really holds it!
I watched this debate between Peter Schiff (Gold bug) and Anthony Pompliano (Bitcoin bug), a rare piece of what you call a high quality debate that you could barely watch these days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wigz8z6Vm3U

In this debate, Peter Schiff said yes his company lists Bitcoin as a payment option but they don't accept it themselves, they have instead a payment provider called Bybit that pays them in dollars. Which makes Bitcoin of course more expensive to pay with since you now have a middle man.

And I think he's right in not accepting Bitcoin. Exchanges would pump the hell out of Bitcoin, dump all the bitcoins they could possibly have to buy gold and then let the market return to its normal place again.... This of course plays against Bitcoin mass adoption.

Lol! You can definitely have your own version of thinking process against an establishment. However, exchanges are indeed doing great in mass adoption! If exchanges weren't there, I want to know how would a newbie buy bitcoin? That newbie would have to find a miner who is willing to sell off the bitcoin. For big corporates, it makes sense because they buy bitcoin in bulk so they would want to eliminate the middle-man. However, for a common man, it is extremely difficult to find and negotiate with a miner directly. Exchanges are filling this exact gap! If exchanges aren't part of the game, the game wouldn't exist!

[Lucius]

Btw the problem is that exchanges really try bad things. For example, binance bought coinmarketcap, the major cryptocurrency price checker. So, I think it's unfair agreement and is not good for cryptocurrencies.

I don’t see what Binance could do through CMC, other than perhaps better positioning their company on the crypto exchange list that is present there, but nothing more than that. The only thing I noticed after that acquisition is that the CMC page has become much slower to load, regardless of the browser and device I use.

It is in human nature to do bad things, so even strictly regulated banks can do very bad things, let's just take the example of the HSBC or Danske Bank scandals that are worth hundreds of billions of dollars. And anyone who expects transparency and honesty in the crypto sector, which is still a very wild place, is at least completely unrealistic.

[arwin100]

Btw the problem is that exchanges really try bad things. For example, binance bought coinmarketcap, the major cryptocurrency price checker. So, I think it's unfair agreement and is not good for cryptocurrencies.

I don’t see what Binance could do through CMC, other than perhaps better positioning their company on the crypto exchange list that is present there, but nothing more than that. The only thing I noticed after that acquisition is that the CMC page has become much slower to load, regardless of the browser and device I use.

Binance for sure do some studies before buying CMC since for sure they will not waste their money for just nothing we know how big the traffic got by CMC and for sure they will earn more by the listing,advertising and other more from that. I see that this is a good move for them since it could give binance a good revenue and exposure.