TL;DR
- Flash Crash on BitMEX: Bitcoin’s price briefly dropped to $8,900 from around $67,000 in a sudden ‘flash crash’ on the BitMEX exchange, while other platforms showed no such drop.
- Whale Activity Speculation: The crash is speculated to have been caused by a ‘whale’ selling over 400 BTC, leading to a temporary halt of withdrawals from certain accounts on BitMEX.
- Investigation Underway: BitMEX is actively investigating the unusual trading activity and has assured that all funds are safe, with the identity of the seller and further details yet to be revealed.
Bitcoin’s price on the BitMEX crypto exchange plummeted to $8,900 late Monday, while the cryptocurrency was trading well above $60,000 on other platforms. This sudden drop, which is being referred to as a ‘flash crash’, has sparked an investigation by BitMEX into the unusual trading activity.
“Bitcoin down to $8,900 on BitMEX?" Well, not quite the whole picture.
Yes, we are investigating potential misconduct by traders on our Bitcoin-USDT Spot market (👀Did you even know we offer Spot trading?)
However, this incident had NO impact on our billion-dollar derivatives… pic.twitter.com/qWXXnyQxjw
— BitMEX (@BitMEX) March 19, 2024
The sudden drop in Bitcoin’s price, known as a ‘flash crash’, started at 22:40 UTC. In just two minutes, the price of Bitcoin plummeted to $8,900, a value not seen since the early part of 2020. However, the recovery was equally swift, with prices rebounding to $63,000 by 22:50 UTC. Despite the dramatic fluctuation on BitMEX, Bitcoin’s global average price remained steady at around $63,300.
Social media users have speculated that the crash was triggered by a ‘whale’ selling over 400 BTC. This large sell order is believed to have driven the BTC/USDT spot pair down to $8,900. The BTC/USDT pair represents Bitcoin’s Tether-denominated price, with Tether being the world’s leading dollar-pegged stablecoin.
Market Speculations: The Role of a “Whale” in Bitcoin’s Price Plunge
Crypto analyst Syq has reported that an unidentified large-scale trader, often referred to as a “whale”, offloaded an estimated total of 400 BTC. This was done in increments of 10 to 50 BTC over a span of two hours. Additionally, Syq disclosed that BitMEX has temporarily halted withdrawals from certain accounts.
In response to the incident, BitMEX stated on social media that it is investigating the large sell orders:
“We are investigating unusual activity in the past few hours involving a user selling large orders on our BTC-USDT Spot Market. This does not affect any of our derivative markets, nor the index price for our popular BTC derivatives contracts,” BitMEX said.
The trading platform assured users that it is operating normally and all funds are safe. As of now, the identity of the user who placed the large sell orders remains unknown. The investigation is ongoing, and further updates are expected from BitMEX in the coming days.
