It's not the exchanges who are behind those spikes. Please. If anyone is in a position to gain the most from market manipulation like that, it's the exchanges

It's not the exchanges who are behind those spikes. Please. If anyone is in a position to gain the most from market manipulation like that, it's the exchanges and there's a bucket list of evidence and malicious behavior from Bitfinex that would make it very surprising if it was some random outsider causing these types of movements. Bitfinex and Bitmex margin trading volume has increased significantly and for the exchange operators have access to (1) order book + margin call data (2) ability to falsify trades and capital due to no audits With those, it becomes insanely trivial to set some bait let the fish bite and simply drain the water or pump it back in on a whim because the order book is just a database and there's no accountability or auditing to keep the market exchanges honest.