In the past when the price would double from like $200 to $400 with some giant, non-aggregate market candles, it was the general consensus it was the Chicom mining monopolies/cartel rigging the price to scam people.  They have a monopoly; they mine everything; they rig the price artificially high; they dump on you.  Seeing as how Bitmain's balance sheet had them making just obscene amounts of money, it's a pretty logical conclusion.  So I wouldn't be surprised if this entire thing is just one giant Chinese scam that keeps on going until dumbass westerners run out of money for them to fleece and then the bubble deflates.

The words "Chicom" and "mining monopoly" were used on like every page back in the old days because people knew exactly what was going on and were pissed off they had a complete monopoly.  It was obvious it was them rigging the price to most people.  I never liked the idea of Chinese scammers exporting imaginary, valueless tokens to the west at artificially rigged high prices.  It's basically what the Federal Reserve attempts to do to the rest of the world - send them all valueless paper for real goods and resources.

The Chinese thing is like a sick joke of them getting revenge on the fed in that regard.  Bitcoin is now at such a retardedly high market cap, it's not just a harmless penny stock pump and dump by the Chicoms doing stuff like that, it's more of a real economic warfare for everyone left holding the bag should the bubble deflate.  People like Tim Draper, Mike Novogratz, and Barry Silbert walking around with billions of dollars invested in this garbage.  If it blows up and leaves them holding the bag with nothing, that's billions of dollars that could have been used to actually invest in America, and instead it all went overseas to a Chicom market rigging scam.