One manipulation mechanism is leverage. Binance and other crypto exchanges offer leveraged trading to all members, and it's fair to say [1] that there's a huge

One manipulation mechanism is leverage. Binance and other crypto exchanges offer leveraged trading to all members, and it's fair to say [1] that there's a huge uptake of those services due to their open-door nature, crypto's volatility, and the illusion of fast money. And human psychology, of course. This means that at any given time, a dominant exchange (i.e. Binance) can run an order books VS leverage liquidations system, where it can be continually (and exclusively) evaluating the cost/profit of using their internal market makers to shift the price of any given asset counter to the leverage trend. Which they, as the exchange holding ALL the data, have full insight into. When we're talking about an asset that's near-exclusively controlled by a particular exchange - e.g. FTT, BNB, ... - this becomes an even simpler manipulation for the exchange. This gives them options. They can allow a "natural" price trend to play out, OR, they can buy out the order books in the opposite direction, and liquidate/take all the money of every leverage trader who tried to leap onboard the trend. The harder the market movement, the more gamblers try to leap onboard, giving the exchange proportional fuel to do as they please. Until a point. [1] https://www.cryptometer.io/open-interest https://www.cryptometer.io/open-interest