A Bitcoin whale on Bitfinex who identifies as Joe007 has been consistent in calling for a steep correction in the market since the $9,000s. The individual explained the current bull market has been highly manipulated by other whales, and a pullback is unavoidable.

According to cryptocurrency trader Jacob Canfield, Joe007 has been profitable for six straight months from August 2019 to January 2020.

On average, the trader recorded $6.52 million in profit on a monthly basis for the past half-year.

Throughout February, Joe007 has been consistent in describing the Bitcoin rally from the $9,000s to $10,500 as a case of manipulation in the form of spoof orders.

In margin trading, spoof orders refer to fake buy orders placed to encourage other investors to place long contracts to bump up the price of Bitcoin. With the recent upsurge being driven primarily by highly leveraged longs, the whale said that the move is irresponsible, and an inevitable pullback will arrive.

Joe007 said:

You can push the price only so long with fantom money. At some point, people would want to cash out their mad gainz only to find no one on the other side of the market. That would be the show.

Whales tend to trade on Bitfinex over other platforms because the exchange offers only up to 3.3x leverage. Compared to BitMEX or Binances 100 to 125x, the low leverage of 3.3x does not appeal to most individual investors with low capital.

As such, traders on Bitfinex tend to trade with a longer-term strategy, as the low leverage significantly reduces the likelihood of any liquidation.

So far, 16 days into February, Joe007 is up to $6.7 million in a short position. If the Bitcoin price stays below $10,000 for the rest of the month, it would result in seven consecutive profitable months for the investor.

With the market sentiment becoming increasingly optimistic day by day, the question is whether the rally, which was initially kickstarted with manipulation through spoof orders, can evolve into an organic upsurge in the short to medium-term.

In response to a question from the community on the possibility of the rally becoming organic as the price increases, Joe007 simply said: Lets wait and see.

Some pieces of data such as on-chain investor activity from Adaptive Funds Willy Woo show that the demand and interest from retail investors have increased in the past month. The upcoming Bitcoin reward halving in late April has been considered as a major variable for the price trend of the dominant cryptocurrency by traders.

One trader known as Satoshi Flipper said:

BTC halving is in 2.5 months. Dont be ignorant and pretend it doesnt matter and/or should be ignored when youre analyzing.

Bitcoin, currently ranked #1 by market cap, is down 2.28% over the past 24 hours. BTC has a market cap of $182.13B with a 24 hour volume of $47.33B.

Chart by CryptoCompare

Bitcoin is down 2.28% over the past 24 hours.

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A big Bitfinex Bitcoin whale is anticipating a severe correction, will he be right? - CryptoSlate