An entrepreneur and cryptocurrency enthusiast says he's discovered damning evidence of insider trading of Bitcoin Cash related to its recent adoption by Coinbase, the popular digital currency exchange, as well as GDAX, another exchange.
"I've found and isolated one instance of insider trading on BCH addition to GDAX/Coinbase," says Albert Renshaw.
("BCH" is Bitcoin Cash.)
The result could have been a massive 700% one-hour gain, says Renshaw.
How it happened
On December 18, someone called "mukiwa2" on Reddit posted "Bitcoin Cash coming in the next few days." On the 19th, Coinbase announced that it would be supporting Bitcoin Cash.
Immediately, Bitcoin Cash values skyrocketed.
"Demand soars while supply stays constant," Renshaw told me via Messenger. "The potential gains are huge. In this case BCH went from $1k to $8k in an hour."
The stakes are huge when a cryptocurrency enters the big exchanges. Suddenly a cryptocurrency that might have only been available to a few people with specific digital wallets is available to a much larger audience of potential buyers.
In this case, someone who invested $150,000 in BCH before the adoption stood to make over $1,000,000 in profit very soon after the Coinbase announcement, which states that "sends and receives are available immediately," and that buys and sells would be "available to all customers once there is sufficient liquidity on GDAX."
The key question: who "mukiwa2" is
It's not clear who "mukiwa2" is, but upon questioning in the Reddit thread, the user reveal that he or she had an inside source.
"I have a mate at CB ;)," mukiwa2 said.
(CB almost certainly refers to Coinbase.)
"mukiwa2" seemed to realize the danger of posting this publicly rather quickly. After more questions, whoever was behind "mukiwa2" deleted his or her comment. Unfortunately for "mukiwa2," the comment was archived, so then "mukiwa2" deleted his or her entire account.
However, Renshaw saved a screen capture of the commentary on December 20 at Archive.is.
Renshaw believes he has uncovered the person who posted the note on Reddit, and has publicly named him on his Facebook account. The person in question is a self-described "Bitcoin and Altcoin enthusiast," with many tweets about cryptocurrency, including "winning Bitcoin" and getting "free Bitcoin."
I contacted the individual via Twitter, however, and the person denies it, and shared a different Facebook account he named as his own, which is not the one Renshaw named. I find his story credible, and as a result, I am not linking to his social profiles. (Note: even with reasonable doubt I would not "doxx" a person by linking to their social accounts. That would require significant and compelling evidence from multiple sources.)
Update:
I've contacted Renshaw, shared the additional information, and he agrees that the individual he first suspected is likely not the right person. He has made his Facebook post private.
I have asked Coinbase for commentary, but do not expect an answer today, as it's Christmas.
Regardless of who the exact individual is, it seems apparent that there was the clear potential for insider trading. Somehow, on December 18th, someone knew about Coinbase supporting Bitcoin Cash beginning on December 19th, and posted publicly about that fact.
As I get more updates, I'll add them to this story.
John Koetsier is a journalist, analyst, and speaker. He analyzes and forecasts mobile trends for TUNE. Follow him on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.