Coinbase and BlackRock Rumored to Suppress Bitcoin Prices—True or False?

• An X user accuses Coinbase and BlackRock of consistently manipulating the Bitcoin price between $55k and $70k to make a profit. 

• Coinbase CEO and a Bloomberg analyst reject these claims, believing the perpetrator has no idea of how ETFs work. 

Coinbase has been under fire after rumors surfaced that it has colluded with BlackRock to stifle the growth of Bitcoin (BTC) since the launch of the US spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). 

As one of the companies that hold the largest amount of Bitcoin globally, Coinbase was accused by an X user identified as Tyler Durden of allowing BlackRock to borrow a substantial amount of Bitcoin without providing collateral. This implies that BlackRock took advantage of its over 357k BTC held to manipulate the price up and down by shorting the digital asset. According to Tyler Durden, Coinbase was largely involved in this manipulation by being the main buyer or seller at market highs and lows in the past several months. 

https://t.co/i7YH90vm0V pic.twitter.com/7oNVWz4FSW

— Tyler (@TylerDurden) September 14, 2024

Joining the conversation, another user identified as Joose requested clarification in simple terms by asking whether Coinbase and BlackRock repeatedly manipulated the price to move up and down within the $55k and $70k range to make a profit. 

Coinbase Responds to the Allegation

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has officially responded to the ongoing allegations, claiming such discrepancies are normal. According to him, all ETF mints and burns are settled on-chain. Before this, institutional clients have options for trade financing and Over-The-Counter (OTC). Also, all funds are settled in their prime vaults within one business day. 

If you want audits, Deloitte audits us annually, we’re a public company. I doubt our institutional clients want people dusting all their addresses, and it’s not our place to share with them. This is what it looks like if you want a bunch of institutional money to flow into Bitcoin. As for cbBTC, yes, you’re trusting a centralized custodian to store the underlying BTC – we’ve never claimed otherwise.

Jumping to Coinbase’s defense, president of ETFStore Nate Geraci clarified that ETFs own underlying BTCs. According to him, these rumors were prevalent in the days of physical gold ETFs. To him, anyone pushing such an agenda does not understand how ETF works. 

Bloomberg Analyst Reacts to Allegation, Trader Predicts Bullish Run for Bitcoin

For Bloomberg analyst and ETF expert Eric Balchunas, the perpetrator of this claim is merely finding an excuse for Bitcoin’s disappointing performance in the past few months. 

I get why these theories exist, and people want to scapegoat the ETFs. Bc it is too unthinkable that the native HODLers could be the sellers. But they are. The call is coming from inside the house. All the ETFs and BlackRock have done is save BTC’s price from the abyss repeatedly.

In the past couple of months, Bitcoin has struggled to sustain its price above the $60k zone, moving to and fro within a narrow range as buyers and sellers battle for supremacy. At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $58.5k after declining by 2.39% in the last 24 hours.

As we just reported, the current slump follows the second assassination attempt of the US presidential candidate Donald Trump. 

According to an analyst identified as Jason Pizzino, Bitcoin could soon make a bullish run as the stock market makes an incredible move upwards. 

With the stock markets going to new all-time highs, the S&P [500] will attempt to get back there probably in the next couple of months. Real estate prices [are]up, and everything is still moving to higher prices. I suspect Bitcoin is going to come back over quarter four.