Coinbase fined USD 6.5 million for inflating trading and liquidity

[paxmao]

According to Reuters and other outlets, Coinbase has been fined for using multiple trading accounts and algorithms that created the illusion of a more liquid and active market for bitcoin and litecoin on their GDAX professional trading platform.

It comes as no surprise to most people on this forum, as most exchanges use market making bots or these are active on behalf of liquidity pools. It is just the fact that multiple accounts were used undisclosed the main argument for this fine.

[hugeblack]

If Coinbase did as well, then the presence of a regulatory body would result in a fine for all trading platforms with greater degrees than Coinbase.  did the report talk about the percentage of trading bots compared to the percentage of real trading pairs?
And why do they need that in Bitcoin ? as they are two of the most attractive markets, and I do not think that trading volumes are what drives people to use Coinbase rather security.

[dothebeats]

This is not a news anymore IMO. Most exchanges are still doing this to pad their stat count to attract more traders on their platform. I'd be more surprised if exchanges are sticking to the clean and fair methods instead of cheating nowadays. Also, this happens right before they go public, so this might affect the stance of some investors looking to buy some of their shares. Either way, $6.5 million is already chump change to Coinbase so I guess they'll just shrug it off and call it a small hindrance.

[mazdafunsun]

Yea, of course anyone who pays at least little attention to buy and sell orders in exchanges would see that something is off in most cases. Like when new exchange has significant trading activity just right after it started working, but in this case i am a bit shocked that Coinbase was doing it , i had impression that Coinbase is reputable and legit.

[dkbit98]

Thank you CFTC for telling us something we already knew  
All exchanges are doing wash trading including Coinbase and it is interesting that this comes just after Coinbase announced they should get listed in stock market.
I am reading that this was related with their trading in period from 2015 to 2018, and imagine what the situation is now with much bigger volume than before.

Interesting to read this short CTFC report and some former employee of GDAX was doing this:
https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8369-21

[bolawin]

What about decentralized exchange, is it worst than CEX?

[Scripture]

Coinbase is a reputable exchange site, but this one is a proof that exchanges are doing something behind the screen to manipulate the trading volumes and that fine is not enough hopefully if proven already, coinbase will have an initiative to disclosed this one.

What about decentralized exchange, is it worst than CEX?

Depends on DEX you’re using and seriously, its hard to trust DEX because they are totally manipulating the volumes.

[djcaoile1205]

I always knew that coinbase was not so honest exchange. Now officialy

[Dhoe]

According to Reuters and other outlets, Coinbase has been fined for using multiple trading accounts and algorithms that created the illusion of a more liquid and active market for bitcoin and litecoin on their GDAX professional trading platform.

It comes as no surprise to most people on this forum, as most exchanges use market making bots or these are active on behalf of liquidity pools. It is just the fact that multiple accounts were used undisclosed the main argument for this fine.

Coinbase like dex exchange because we can use price based on how much we want like on binance or other exchange, but Coinbase most recommended exchange because many coins after get news listing on Coinbase price pump. I need many coin can list on Coinbase to make price pump and could take many time with profit on altcoin trading.

[jrrsparkles]

I always knew that coinbase was not so honest exchange. Now officialy

When it comes to the trading volume you can't expect the accuracy because even on coinmarketcap you can see two value like reported volume and actual volume and its a known facts that every exchange is manipulating their trading volume to boost their rank up for certain trading pairs and coinbase actually get caught due to strict regulations and audit while exchanges operating from other regions also will face the same if there is such kind of audit.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

This is not a news anymore IMO. Most exchanges are still doing this to pad their stat count to attract more traders on their platform.

Yeah, but Coinbase is regulated pretty strictly by the US government, and I'm kind of surprised that they'd do something like this.  With off-shore, unregulated exchanges I'd say most of them are engaged in some sort of shenanigans but Coinbase not only has a lot to lose but also has less of a chance of getting away with shady shit like this.  Very interesting.

I always knew that coinbase was not so honest exchange.

I don't know about that; they've been seemingly honest as far as not scamming their customers.  You might see threads about their crappy customer service or people getting their accounts banned for trivial reasons, but there haven't been any credible claims that they've actually stolen from their customers.  Of course this new charge against them sort of shows that they're not squeaky clean.  I don't think any crypto exchange is.

[paxmao]

If Coinbase did as well, then the presence of a regulatory body would result in a fine for all trading platforms with greater degrees than Coinbase.  did the report talk about the percentage of trading bots compared to the percentage of real trading pairs?
And why do they need that in Bitcoin ? as they are two of the most attractive markets, and I do not think that trading volumes are what drives people to use Coinbase rather security.

My take is that they wanted to show a higher degree of liquidity to attract huge players that need it. My take is that this would be in line with Coinbase's strategy of bringing in institutional level players - these may need to build and drop very large positions in a short time thus liquidity is a big thing for them.

This is not a news anymore IMO.[ ...] $6.5 million is already chump change to Coinbase so I guess they'll just shrug it off and call it a small hindrance.

Exchanges playing in the grey area is not news yeah, 6.5 is just change agree. It is just interesting because Coinbase will possibly go public soon.

...
Coinbase and it is interesting that this comes just after Coinbase announced they should get listed in stock market.
...

The good thing is that it may bring the price to a slightly more reasonable figure than it is now ah?

...
I don't know about that; they've been seemingly honest as far as not scamming their customers.  ...
...

Yep - and  that is pretty much what you can ask in the Crypto world - if they do not take your money and go MtGox style they are good enough.

[Johnyz]

I always knew that coinbase was not so honest exchange. Now officialy

Sad to say that most of the exchanges are doing this and since there’s no much regulations about this one, they think that this is fine until this things happen. Coinbase is a great and big exchange as well, but this one can really hurt their reputation and honestly, people might be in doubt again to buy bitcoin on exchanges because of this incident.

[Kemarit]

This is an open secret already, maybe they are good at hiding, specially those top exchanges, but sooner or later they are going to be discovered.

As for the fine, hmm, quite amusing to see them giving just like a slap in a the wrist, $6.5 m is nothing for Coinbase, they should have been penalised even more, IMHO. I'm sure they have made billions out of inflating their liquidity in the market.

[Sithara007]

This is an open secret already, maybe they are good at hiding, specially those top exchanges, but sooner or later they are going to be discovered.

As for the fine, hmm, quite amusing to see them giving just like a slap in a the wrist, $6.5 m is nothing for Coinbase, they should have been penalised even more, IMHO. I'm sure they have made billions out of inflating their liquidity in the market.

I believe that the quantum of punishment is fine and now they should move on. It is not something which is very rare in the cryptocurrency market. Almost all the exchanges do that (at least during the initial phases). I am one of the users who registered to Coinbase in 2014 and back then it was very difficult for the new exchanges. Coinbase had a lot of promotional offers which were mutually beneficial. Those are the things of the past. Now it won't be fair to penalize Coinbase for something that happened many years back.

[fiulpro]

According to Reuters and other outlets, Coinbase has been fined for using multiple trading accounts and algorithms that created the illusion of a more liquid and active market for bitcoin and litecoin on their GDAX professional trading platform.

It comes as no surprise to most people on this forum, as most exchanges use market making bots or these are active on behalf of liquidity pools. It is just the fact that multiple accounts were used undisclosed the main argument for this fine.

This was honestly a good thing that they were fined. Indeed in the market we all are always worried about the problems that whales can create and at the same time if a reputed name in the community will try and create such troubles for the community itself;  then what do have left ?

Bitcoins is something which will only grow if the whole community strives to not only make profits but rather keep the who system intact, it's not centralized rather the centre is every single person out there who owns even a little amount. Coinbase should even give an apology to everyone involved.

The trading bots is something that I would never trusts, those innumerable telegram groups rather tries and creates unnecessarily a huge wave to move the price , the sites which does think that they can predict the price etc is more or so ruining their own reputation.

At the end of the day all of the exchanges are involved in such things and there should be rather stricter rules for them so that they can stop earning benefits from the individual traders. This is no less than the whales moving their coins here and there just to scare away people in the market.

Hopefully they try and improve themselves, their whole community so that other people related to them does not have to face problems.

[jaysabi]

Thank you CFTC for telling us something we already knew  
All exchanges are doing wash trading including Coinbase and it is interesting that this comes just after Coinbase announced they should get listed in stock market.
I am reading that this was related with their trading in period from 2015 to 2018, and imagine what the situation is now with much bigger volume than before.

Interesting to read this short CTFC report and some former employee of GDAX was doing this:
https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8369-21

No doubt Coinbase needed to get this matter wrapped up as part of their IPO preparation.  You can't go to market with an unresolved regulatory matter against you.  This is further reason that crypto exchanges need to be regulated though.  It's too easy to game the system if their actions aren't monitored.

[wack slacker]

I believe that all exchanges have manipulation by the owner of the trading property with tricks to take money from users.  It seems that transaction costs do not satisfy them.  The CEO of Bitmex went to jail, Coinbase was fined and it could be Binance, Houbi or Okex ...
Even decentralized platforms like Uniswap still experience exchange rate manipulation using pre-programmed BOTs.  My advice for traders is to trade less and choose good entry for the best return.

[Twinkledoe]

I believe that all exchanges have manipulation by the owner of the trading property with tricks to take money from users.  It seems that transaction costs do not satisfy them.  The CEO of Bitmex went to jail, Coinbase was fined and it could be Binance, Houbi or Okex ...
Even decentralized platforms like Uniswap still experience exchange rate manipulation using pre-programmed BOTs.  My advice for traders is to trade less and choose good entry for the best return.

Most of these exchanges, whether big or small are guilty of this kind of scheme. However, some wash trading is owed to the developers of the coin themselves. Because they want to make it seem their coin has active trading and attract potential traders. You can spot those coins if you have been long enough seeing a lot of new alts being traded, pumped and dumped, and gone. Coinbase fine is just loose change for them, however, this will serve as a warning for some exchanges that may practice this kind of fraudulent trading activity.

[arwin100]

I believe that all exchanges have manipulation by the owner of the trading property with tricks to take money from users.  It seems that transaction costs do not satisfy them.  The CEO of Bitmex went to jail, Coinbase was fined and it could be Binance, Houbi or Okex ...
Even decentralized platforms like Uniswap still experience exchange rate manipulation using pre-programmed BOTs.  My advice for traders is to trade less and choose good entry for the best return.

Most of these exchanges, whether big or small are guilty of this kind of scheme. However, some wash trading is owed to the developers of the coin themselves. Because they want to make it seem their coin has active trading and attract potential traders. You can spot those coins if you have been long enough seeing a lot of new alts being traded, pumped and dumped, and gone. Coinbase fine is just loose change for them, however, this will serve as a warning for some exchanges that may practice this kind of fraudulent trading activity.

I saw this from the other small exchange where they really do this to pump up their standings on CMC or even on other site so that they can fool users and worse to scam them but in coinbase its surprising to see them doing that since they are successful already. Maybe they want to hype more their platform since they have so many competitor as of now. So from this incident maybe this really serve as a warning to other that their are legal entities that watching them if they do any illegal acts here.