Sell orders worth nearly $55.5 million pushed Bitcoin down to $8,900, a drop of more than 750% on BitMEX in about two minutes.
According to data from the TradingView platform, the price crash began at 5:40 a.m. this morning and lasted for two minutes. At that time, BitMEX showed Bitcoin at nearly $67,500, then dropped all the way to $8,900 per coin. This is a drop of more than 750%, the lowest level since the beginning of 2020.
The recovery was swift, with the world’s largest cryptocurrency immediately rising back to $67,000 by 5:50 a.m.
At the same time, Bitcoin was still trading above $67,000 on other exchanges. According to CoinMarketCap , the market price of this currency at 5:40 a.m. was around $67,486 per unit.
Some observers believe that the sudden price drop on BitMEX was caused by a sell-off by “whales.” CoinDesk sources said that one investor sold more than 850 units, equivalent to nearly $55.5 million, on the exchange, causing the XBT/USDT spot index to fall to $8,900.
The abbreviation XBT is used to refer to Bitcoin, similar to BTC. While USDT refers to Tether - a popular stablecoin that is always pegged to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio. Therefore, the XBT/USDT index represents the USD price of Bitcoin.
BitMEX said its system was operating normally, but there was heavy Bitcoin selling activity and potential wrongdoing involving a “very small number” of accounts. “We cannot comment on any specific user behavior or actions taken,” a BitMEX representative said.
The exchange also announced that all investor funds were safe. Following the incident, BitMEX said it had suspended withdrawals and was considering investigating large sell orders. "We launched an investigation as soon as we noticed the unusual activity," a representative of the exchange said.
BitMEX is the world's 31st largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap . It averages nearly 1,000 Bitcoins traded per day, representing more than $60 million in liquidity.
Currently, each Bitcoin is nearly $63,000, down about 14% from the record high set earlier this month. However, the world's largest cryptocurrency is still up about 50% compared to the beginning of the year.
Xiao Gu (according to CoinDesk )
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