Of course. Extreme case: with everyone keeping their bitcoins and never selling, the Wall Street sharks can't buy "real" bitcoin, so their profits can only come on the derivatives side. For example, when they short massively, they can gain on cash-settled futures if the price goes down - provided there's a sucker who's longing those futures. If no hodler engages in derivatives trading, the sucker would be some trader - possibly another Wall street shark on the other side.
The logical question then is: what can a minnow do apart from hodling? Is there a way to benefit from swings in the derivatives market without touching one's btc stash?
The thing is, in the gold market the derivatives price leads the physical price. Whatever the derivative sells for, thats the price dictated to the metal sellers.
We sure as hell do not want to end up like that and it might be wise to start understanding the priorities and dynamics of derivatives markets and how they can potentially impact BTC.
Bitcoin has one huge advantage over gold in that respect because it's liquid. Gold bars do not travel through wires so it cannot be traded electronically in its physical form. That basically hands the entire market over to the derivitaves. Bitcoin on the other hand can be so there's a big damper effect on the futures "tail wagging the dog" scenario.
My guess is that these hedge funds might be buying bitcoin themselves, and hence the pumping, with so many green candles and no correction. Then they short it, using leverage to bet on a fall in CME, and thus making more money than a whale might do (due to the margin applied, and the ammount of money, as these hedge funds have millions at their disposal).
The question is: how low could it go, if they succeed? Where should we put buying orders? What would be the dip? And how can we instruct people who are buying now to hold it?
Also, how much would they affect the price, if most bitcoins are not on the exchanges?
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