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« on: September 12, 2018, 06:41:07 AM »
In any asset, there is significant informational asymmetry between insiders and outsiders. In stocks, insiders are people like executives and mutual funds who have material, unfair advantage over outsiders who don’t have access to the latest financials, board room meeting minutes, etc. In cryptocurrencies, insiders are 1) the executives of the companies behind cryptocurrency tokens, 2) mining pools, and 3) large holders (i.e. “whales”). Regardless of the asset, insiders have access to critical information sooner than the outsiders, which allows them to buy before rallies, or sell before selloffs.
Unless you are an insider, this informational asymmetry is bad if left unregulated, because it rigs the game in favor of insiders. In the long run, this will discourage outsiders from investing at all, because they want to avoid losing money. If unmitigated insider trading activity dominates, then investors will eventually become jaded with investing in general and move onto other assets that promote fair trading activities.