Officials in the US have opened a criminal investigation into whether traders are manipulating the price of Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
The Justice Department is said to be looking into techniques used to bump up prices including spoofing, in which traders flood the market with fake orders that are never fulfilled and wash trading, which gives a false impression of market demand when a buyer purchases against themselves, tempting others to follow suit.
Prosecutors are working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a financial regulator that oversees trading against cryptocurrencies, according to Bloomberg.
The crackdown comes amid growing concerns that hugely popular virtual...