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Prior to exchanges in the US such as Coinbase, Ehrlich emphasized that bitcoin was complicated and almost impossible to buy unless I had an IT background or programming background. Coinbase, valued at $ 8 billion, at one point registered 50,000 new customers a day at the height of the cryptocurrency boom last year, CEO Brian Armstrong told the Bloomberg Players Technology Summit in San Francisco this summer.
But it was not all the clamor of the dinner table that led to the epic price increase.
The rapid peak also coincided with the introduction of a bitcoin futures market. The upward prices aligned with the day the Chicago Mercantile Exchange introduced bitcoin futures trading on December 17th. The Chicago Board Options Exchange opened a futures market a week ago.
As long as futures existed, it was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to bet on the decline in bitcoin prices.
This week, bitcoin futures products have reached the lowest level since they were introduced. Research from the Federal Reserve in San Francisco suggests that bitcoin futures are in part to blame, as investors finally have the chance to bet against the cryptocurrency.
US regulators have reported other potentially disastrous reasons for the stratospheric increase in bitcoins last year.
Reportedly, the Justice Department is assessing whether traders have used the cable, a controversial cryptocurrency that the founders say is backed by a US dollar to support bitcoin during its record rally, according to Bloomberg News, who cited three people familiar with the question.
Some academics are also skeptical. The professor of finance at the University of Texas, John Griffin, who has a 10-year history of finding financial fraud, and a graduate student Amin Shams published a study in June that states that at least half of the jump in bitcoin is due to the coordinated price manipulation.
At key moments when the bitcoin was in decline, they said the cable had been used to buy bitcoins to help "stabilize and manipulate" the price of cryptocurrency.
Despite the enormous losses this year, Asman thinks that his family remains intrigued and open to conversation. But this year, the theme could be less on the "crazy euphoria" of last year and more on how to look forward to 2019.
"A lot of people will wonder what happened, and what will come next," Asman said.
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