Original author: Jacob King
Original translation: zhouzhou, BlockBeats
Editors note: Recently, a Twitter article about Bitcoin and Tether has caused widespread discussion in the English community, with a single tweet receiving over 800,000 views. In the article, the author Jacob King portrays himself as a staunch Bitcoin bear, pointing out that the Bitcoin market is manipulated by insiders such as Tether and Bitfinex, and that the price illusion is maintained through false demand, circular buying, and unlimited money printing. Jacob believes that the so-called entry of the government and institutions is a man-made narrative and is actually a Ponzi scheme. Once a liquidity crisis occurs, the market will face a collapse.
The following is the original content (for easier reading and understanding, the original content has been reorganized):
The entire story of Bitcoin is a carefully crafted illusion, orchestrated by insiders to make you believe that governments and institutions are “all in” — that the boom in this market is driven by real demand.
But in reality, this is the biggest bubble in human history and is destined to become the worst financial scandal in history.
Ask yourself: If Bitcoin is truly decentralized and powerful...
Why is it that it is always the same few forces that control the narrative, hold the purse strings, and influence the laws?
This is all a smoke screen, and here’s the evidence.
El Salvador’s so-called Bitcoin “investment” is an elaborate sham.
There is no evidence of any purchases at all, and the latest blockchain data shows that of the 6,114 Bitcoins in their treasury, 6,111 were not purchased at all - but transferred directly from Bitfinex and Tether.
There is no doubt that they are behind this. Oh, and Tether also drafted all Bitcoin-related bills in El Salvador himself.
This is not national adoption at all, but a liquidity laundering scheme disguised as a government action, with the aim of misleading retail investors into believing that even the government is buying it, so you should buy it too.
No wonder the corrupt Bukele was willing to cooperate, Tether used bribes to settle everything and used El Salvador as a puppet.
Bugles harvest was exposed in the media, Bitfinex gained liquidity, and Tether survived.
For those who haven’t been following along, this is something that El Salvador has since quietly abandoned its plans to monetize Bitcoin, as the entire experiment was a complete failure. The Chivo wallet has effectively gone bankrupt and shut down, with usage plummeting 98.9% since its launch.
Even Tether and its internal network can’t be saved — because there is no real market demand.
Jack Mallers is a core figure in this circle - he has extremely close ties with the Tether-Bitfinex operating system.
His new firm, Twenty One Capital, claims to be making massive Bitcoin investments, but on-chain data shows that up to 14,000 of those Bitcoins (over $2 billion) came directly from Tether’s reserves.
They claim there is massive market demand, but the only company with a record of investing in them is Tether, a company that has been convicted of lying to investors and committing fraud. So fishy…
This is not an investment at all, but internal accounting - another shell company performance and part of this huge liquidity circus. Mallers other company Strike has also had a close relationship with Tether for a long time. It relies on Tether for 100% of its payment transactions.
This is not innovation, but a variant of monopoly.
Michael Saylor is playing the same reflexive Ponzi cycle game.
I’m sure Saylor is also connected to the inner circle that supports this whole situation. His company MicroStrategy is not “innovating” at all - it is one of the most aggressive and leveraged stocks in the entire market. What they call “investing in Bitcoin” is actually fleecing Bitcoin.
Their routine is very clear:
Financing → Buy Bitcoin → Inflate the price → Refinancing → Repeat the cycle.
This is a closed-loop scam built on hope and hype.
What Saylor advocates is not the concept of hard currency, but the desire to keep the game going for a little longer - so that he can get the most benefits before the music stops.
Tether and Bitcoin are caught in a vicious cycle of endorsement - Tether supports Bitcoin, and Bitcoin in turn supports Tether. This structure is a time bomb that may explode at any time.
At the Bitcoin 2025 conference, Bitcoin extremist and author of The Bitcoin Standard, Saifedean Ammous, finally spoke out the subtext on everyone’s mind:
“Tether is quietly accumulating Bitcoin and continuously expanding its reserves. One day, its Bitcoin reserves will exceed its US dollar reserves. By then, Tether will not only be able to maintain its peg, but may even appreciate. Imagine: a ‘stablecoin’ worth more than $1, backed by Bitcoin instead of US debt.”
This is almost a replay of the collapse of Mt. Gox and Lehman Brothers: once liquidity breaks, this deck of cards will collapse instantly. There is no real asset support, only a bunch of unstable mutual endorsements.
Get ready - a crash of epic proportions is on the way.
At the Bitcoin 2025 conference, Tether announced that it holds more than 100,000 bitcoins and 50 tons of gold.
It sounds like something is very wrong. Here is its operation process:
1. Tether created millions (or more) of USDT out of thin air;
2. Use these newly printed Tethers to buy Bitcoin, pushing up the price;
3. Sell the excess Bitcoins and exchange them for US dollars and gold as reserves;
4. Then take out these reserves to show that they are legal and compliant;
5. At the same time, the group of Bitcoin extremists (the faith flock) in the audience were still cheering, thinking that everything was real.
Tether’s skeptics have been right for years. We pointed out years ago that Tether was quietly buying Bitcoin, and they were in denial. Now, they don’t even pretend. Tether is the only major buyer of Bitcoin in the entire market - everything depends on it printing money and buying it.
This is the ultimate house of cards. Once it collapses, no one can save it.
The so-called institutional Bitcoin demand is just a fad.
On June 2, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $267.5 million, and this was the third consecutive day of large capital withdrawals. This is not a one-off phenomenon - this trend has continued for several months, indicating that institutions are retreating rapidly.
Back in late 2021, Bitcoin ETFs saw billions of dollars in inflows at the height of the market frenzy. But since then, institutional interest has plummeted by more than 91%. Today, these continued outflows reflect declining market confidence, tightening regulation, increased volatility, and an uncertain earnings outlook.
Institutions should have been the pillars of Bitcoin prices, but now they are all running away. The so-called institutional entry was just hype and FOMO at the time. Smart money has already quietly left the market.
To make matters worse, even the relatively pro-crypto SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) is becoming cautious. They are said to be reserved about approving more Bitcoin spot ETFs from institutions such as Bitwise and Grayscale, citing the weak anti-fraud protection mechanism.
The entire Bitcoin ecosystem is actually a game of smoke and mirrors. This industry is not supported by real demand at all, but by a group of insiders (such as Tether and Bitfinex) who are constantly manipulating it - they repeatedly mobilize coins and liquidity, and carefully create the illusion of adoption and market heat.
They constructed a powerful narrative system and successfully convinced the public that governments and institutions are entering the market in large numbers. But what is the reality? This is just a sophisticated scam of pumping and supporting the market.
If you are awake enough to penetrate the noise, you will find how dangerous it is. The price of Bitcoin is not driven by natural growth or real institutional demand, but is almost entirely maintained by Tethers unlimited printing of money and then buying BTC. More than 90% of the Bitcoin purchases on the market now are backed by Tethers capital injection. Once the US government (currently being promoted by the Trump camp) introduces strict regulation on stablecoins, this liquidity tap will be closed, and the Bitcoin market will face a tragic liquidation.
Not only will Bitcoin not be able to break through $100K in the end, it may even fall directly below $10K. The so-called institutional demand has long disappeared, and the inside players have gradually been exposed. This illusion of artificial support is destined to not last long.
This entire narrative is a man-made fantasy, a house of cards waiting to collapse when the winds of reality blow.
Please be careful: this is not the hard currency of the future but a financial bomb that is counting down.
