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Curiously, from a distance, the bitcoin market is barely moving and looks like it is preparing to linger between $11,000 and $12,000. But sweep a magnifying glass across the charts and a much more sinister picture comes into focus. Tuesday, for instance, provided a classic example of what some wouldn’t hesitate to label as ‘manipulation’. The day began and ended more or less wrapped around the $11,600 mark – a line which is looking increasingly like it has its own gravitational pull, meaning BTC could be orbiting it for a while.

However, the devil is in the detail that lurks between the $11.6k bookends, and this is where the concerns over bitcoin’s Wild West nature lie.

At around 6am, the price of a bitcoin spiked from $11,600 to $11,800. Within two hours it had briefly touched $12,300 – a $700 dollar rise before the breakfast plates were even clean.

No sooner had the panic buying begun when the rug was pulled from under the peculiar rise. Before Tuesday morning was done, BTC had dropped rapidly back to $11,600.

A similar pattern occurred on Tuesday night. A sharp drop to $11,200 before tracing back to the draw of $11,600.

‘Bitcoin is as bitcoin does’ would no doubt be the mantra of many analysts and traders, but to have such a violent oscillation on an otherwise steady horizontal line is simply counterproductive to the whole cryptocurrency community’s desire to be accepted as mainstream.

Again, using Tuesday as an example, there was no market news or an announcement that might influence prices. In short, the huge and short-lived price movements on a flat line had no motivation and, therefore, no explanation.