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Market manipulation is an issue plaguing the cryptocurrency industry, with some institutional investors staying away from the asset class for fear of falling victim to such tactics.
Cryptocurrency markets are susceptible to manipulation, and there are many ways in which market operators or crypto asset owners can manipulate the market.
Wash trading is one method of manipulating cryptocurrency exchanges.
The practice involves traders buying and selling the same asset simultaneously to create an active atmosphere around the cryptocurrency.
When a cryptocurrency sees a lot of activity, it makes other traders think there is demand for it, pushing up the price of the digital asset.
A recent report from the Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) shows that money laundering transactions have decreased on many of the top cryptocurrency exchanges around the world.
The report shows that in the first six months, money laundering transactions among the top 40 exchanges decreased by 35.7%.
This is a good sign for the crypto trading community as it shows that the legitimacy of cryptocurrency exchanges is increasing, potentially attracting more people to participate in trading this asset class.
BTI has partnered with many top exchanges to launch a program for verifying cryptocurrency trading volumes. The exchanges provide the required information to confirm the validity of the trading volumes on their platforms.
It is through this collaborative effort that money wash trading has been reduced across exchanges and is expected to end over time.
Statistics from the report show that Poloniex, Upbit, Kraken, and Coinbase are some of the exchanges that have successfully avoided money laundering transactions.
These exchanges have the least amount of money laundering happening on their platforms. Bibox and OKEx are among the exchanges that still have a high percentage of money laundering happening.
Of the volume on these two exchanges, 73% is allegedly from wash trading, but they are still ranked among the top 20 exchanges in the world due to their high real trading volume.
In the list of countries, the United States and Japan have the most clean crypto exchanges. This can be attributed to the strict regulatory policies implemented in these countries.
These regulations provide protection to crypto traders in these countries, leaving little room for market manipulation.
Several exchanges have recently been added to the list of platforms monitored by BTI. Gemini, Indodax, Binance, and Bitflyer are all monitored by BTI.
According to the report, Binance had less than 10% laundered transactions, making the exchange one of the exchanges with the least laundered transactions.
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