[Cryptography] Most transactions on crypto exchanges are bogus

[John Levine]

An impressively detailed article on SSRN called "Crypto Wash Trading"
looks at transactions on cryptocurrency exchanges.  What they found is
dismaying but not surprising.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3530220

They compare trades on the three exchanges regulated by NY state,
Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Gemini, with the much larger set of
unregulated ones like Binance. On the regulated exchanges the trading
patterns look like patterns on other exchanges. On the unregulated
ones, they do not, with 70% being wash sales, the same person as buyer
and seller. They do it to make the exchange look busier than it is, to
manipulate the price, or both.

Since smaller exchanges follow prices set by larger ones, even if your exchange is
legit, the prices are not.

R's,
John