Bithumb Denies Fake Crypto Trading Volumes – Report

[Ozark]

The South Korean platform has rejected a CER analysis which alleged that Bithumb manipulated volumes.

South Korea’s Bithumb, one of the largest crypto markets, has rebuffed accusations of “intentionally inflated” trading volumes made by the exchange rating services company CER. An unmanned Bithumb official told US magazine Forbes on Wednesday that the platform does not use any manipulation techniques.

CER, owned by Hacken, an Estonia-based crypto project that develops the Hacken (HKN) coin, published research of the Bithumb trading volumes for the period of June 1-November 22 of this year. CER analyzed links between trading volumes and prices volatility and reviewed transactions in those months.

“[Bithumb] applies various trade volume manipulation techniques and then uses a multi-factored approach to conceal these manipulations,” the analysis reads.

According to CER, the South Korean platform was on the bottom of the top ten ranking on Coinmarketcap (CMC) in September with volume around $350 million daily. However, after mid-October, the exchange’s 24-hour trades rose to over $1 billion with a peak on November 11 when Bithumb reported $4.4 billion volumes. As per the CER analysis, Bithumb pumped up its volume by manipulating the data of its ten most active coins: Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), Dash (DASH), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), OmiseGo (OMG), Qtum (Qtum), and Waltonchain (WTC).

For example, Bithumb allegedly manipulated its BTC market with irregular volumes not correlated with the price moves, or by “peculiar trade volume performance” when 90-95% of the total 24-hours trades were coming during the first few minutes of 11 AM local time every day.

The unnamed Bithumb official told Forbes via mail:

“Bithumb is doing nothing to inflate trading volume. Bithumb is not selling mining-based coin. Bthumb is trying to get more customers by providing various promotions just like any other company in the world as a normal business.”

On the other hand, CER marketing lead Gleb Myrko told the US magazine that CER parent company Hacken has never tried to list its token on Bithumb and therefore, there is no conflict of interests, Myrko explained.

HKN is one of the relatively small coins with $1.8 million in value and only $4,995 trading volume for the last 24 hours to 15:11 UTC on Thursday as per CMC data.

Bithumb, which experienced a hack attack in June, is only part of CMC list of exchanges by reported volumes, where it currently sits at number two. However, Bithumb is not included in the CMC adjusted volumes ranking.

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