The cryptocurrency sector occasionally faces suspicions of manipulated trading volumes. A fresh report from a blockchain data research firm is now accusing multiple prominent cryptocurrency exchanges of faking trading volume.



BTI suggests various cryptocurrency exchanges are manipulating trading volume



More specifically, these most recent allegations are coming from the Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI). This report is said to have investigated approximately a dozen different cryptocurrency exchanges.



Moreover, only three out of these – namely Bitfinex, Binance, and Liquid – are supposedly innocent of substantially manipulating the exchanges’ trading volumes.



The report says that the remaining examined exchanges were guilty of “grossly wash trading their volume.”



Wash trading is a practice which is usually mainly employed in order to give the appearance of vast interest in a given asset class. Practically, this involves faking large volumes.



According to BTI’s investigation, the exchange supposedly most frequently engaging in wash trading is OKEx. This is especially notable as OKEx is the exchange that is ranked second in volume by CoinMarketCap.



OKEx added to Exchange Advisory List



Furthermore, BTI subsequently released a word of warning regarding OKEx. “OKEx has been moved to our Exchange Advisory List as we found just about all of their top 30 traded tokens to be engaging in wash trading when processed through our algorithms.



“It appears they have benefited the most from the CMC referral traffic, as our estimated adjusted volume for them would still keep them in the top 10,” BTI’s statement continued.



Nevertheless, OKEx is far from the only sinner, according to BTI’s findings. They also noted that other prominent cryptocurrency exchanges, such as HitBTC and Huobi, were supposedly also guilty of similar behavior.



As a result, BTI added both of these exchanges to its “Exchange Advisory List” which intends to guide consumers’ choices. In addition to this, BTI also suggested that as much as 80% of the top 25 Bitcoin pairs’ trading volume might be faked.



The BTI also proposed that the main

motivation behind this is to swindle funds from cryptocurrency projects – or to “steal money from aspiring token projects,” as the report puts it.



Nonetheless, it should be noted that this is BTI’s word against the different cryptocurrency exchanges. However, it should also be noted that the BTI’s report is extensive and well worth reading in its entirety.

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