US authorities are looking for signs of manipulating the course of cryptocurrency

In the United States began a criminal investigation into possible frauds related to the cost of Bitcoin and the most popular altcoins, reports Kommersant.

The investigation is conducted by the US Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commodity Commission (CFTC), which also deals with cryptocurrency derivatives trading. The goal of regulators is to check whether illegal practices such as artificially increasing trading volume or placing bogus orders are being applied.

The US Department of Justice alerted the constant jumps in the cost of cryptocurrencies, and it suspects that traders and investors may purposefully escalate the situation. At the same time, the US government does not restrict trade in cryptocurrency in the United States, and only taxes the income from operations.

There is a high probability that traders in the market will use illegal methods similar to those used in the securities market. But unlike the cryptocurrency market, exchanges are strictly controlled and regulated by laws. However, there are always those who want to circumvent these laws, so the authorities (not only the United States) have been fighting fraudsters for several decades.
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The two most likely options for fraud in the cryptocurrency market are the placement of fictitious orders to buy or sell currencies and the creation of a system consisting of several traders who trade among themselves, giving the impression of high activity.

Placing a large number of fictitious orders in the cryptocurrency market can create panic among players who will begin to dump assets. The purpose of such a scam is to scare the rest of the actors, who will start selling cryptocurrency at a low cost.

After the release of the news about the beginning of the investigation, the rate of Bitcoin fell by $ 400 to $ 7,350 (at the time of writing the news a little more than $ 7,500).