Chaos surrounding the introduction of Bitcoin Cash
I was sitting and thinking about the large sums of money flooding into cryptocurrencies. After that, I began to think about Coinbase, the most popular exchange for the common person. In wake of rumors that Coinbase is going to add more coins to its arsenal, I expected the value of any added coin to rise. However, I did not expect the addition of bitcoin cash (BCH) to stir up as much chaos as it did on Tuesday. Ranging from insider trading rumors to random spikes in prices, Coinbase had to shut down the new asset temporarily just two minutes after the start.
What really happened? As many of us know bitcoin cash split off from Bitcoin on August 1st, when some of the developers decided to try and improve the bitcoin transaction speeds. Now to this day, many people believe the Bitcoin Cash is a better more efficient Bitcoin, and others are quite skeptical. All opinions aside, BCH’s value has risen steadily in the past month and shot up to a high of $3,813 on Tuesday night give or take a couple hundred dollars. This all stems from Coinbase deciding to roll out support for BCH, immediately diminishing the value of BTC. As BCH soared to new highs, BTC went as low as $15,005 dollars. After extreme volatility concerns compared to other exchanges, Coinbase decided to freeze BCH trading. A few hours after, Coinbase also announced they are investigating insider trading into their employees.
The price was seen rising relatively sharply before Coinbase made the announcement. This could signal signs of insider trading, but after further research, there seems to be more at play. Some crypto enthusiasts pointed out that a Reddit threat called “ATTN: Bitcoin Cash added to Coinbase API (EXTREMELY BULLISH)” may have spoiled the surprise. Coinbase’s API included options for BCH trading and wallets three days before the information became available to the public, and someone ended up finding this mistake.
Rumors of insider trading have also came afloat. Coinbase’s ethics policy prevents employees from “trading on ‘material non-public information,’ such as when a new asset will be added to our platform,” wrote Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in this medium blog post.
Brian Armstrong also mentioned, “Given the price increase in the hours leading up the announcement, we will be conducting an investigation into this matter. If we find evidence of any employee or contractor violating our policies — directly or indirectly — I will not hesitate to terminate the employee immediately and take appropriate legal action.” This is an interesting topic to go over. As we all know, many of the legal stances around traditional finance are not relevant in cryptocurrencies. Regulations around insider trading are not as close to as strict because at the end of the day, crpyto is an highly anonymous and decentralized movement. According to this article by Aaron Mak, “it wouldn’t legally be considered insider trading because cryptocurrencies aren’t securities, but the allegations, if true, would raise many questions about the company’s trustworthiness.” From an outside perspective like mine, it seems a little too easy to commit insider trading while working for a company like Coinbase. Many critics are shaming Coinbase and have made statements such as, “Whoever you are you are you’re making crypto look like Wall St. Shame on you.”
Since my introduction to crypto earlier this year, I have been shocked by Coinbase’s challenges to keep up with demand and keep the application up during times of chaos. While this was happening, I instantly received 10+ messages from my friends and fellow crypto enthusiasts via slack and iMessage, “Is your Coinbase up?” “Coinbase is down” or something along those lines. It will be very interesting to see how Coinbase proceeds into the future, and how the unfreezing of BCH will effect the market. My personal opinion on the BCH addition and price pump is conflicted. While I do see the value in the BCH technology, I am troubled by how much the price has increased following the introduction of BCH to Coinbase. BCH is still the same BCH it was a couple days ago, and has the same intrinsic value it has always had. Does an introduction to Coinbase really justify this increase in value? Or does the connivence of buying it for the general public allow that much more cash to flow in? I do not know to the answer to that yet, however, I decided to buy BTC after the price tanked to around $15,500 and currently do not hold any BCH.
My thoughts on what’s next: We see that Coinbase has a profound impact on the market and popularity of alt-coins. If the value of BCH increased by that much after its introduction, a good investment strategy could be to buy some of the top 10 market cap coins waiting for their inevitable addition to Coinbase (i.e. Ripple, Dash, Cardano).
In January, I’ll be heading with the team to the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami. If you’re interested, check out their website/Facebook Event Page and join us for a great experience.
