Bitcoin Flash Crashed to $8.9K on BitMEX
Large sell orders totaling $55.49 million led to a sharp decline in the price of bitcoin, dropping it to $8,900 on the BitMEX exchange. However, this overnight crash was short-lived. The price plunge occurred specifically on the XBT/USD spot market late on Monday.
BitMEX has announced that it is conducting an investigation into the significant sell orders responsible for the sudden flash crash. Indeed, as the headline suggests, bitcoin experienced a sudden drop to $8,900 late on Monday on the BitMEX platform, while prices remained significantly higher, hovering above $60,000, on other exchanges.
The downward slide commenced at 22:40 UTC, and within a span of just two minutes, prices plummeted to $8,900, marking the lowest level since
early 2020, as per data from the TradingView charting platform. However, the recovery was swift, with prices bouncing back to $67,000 by 22:50 UTC.
Despite the volatility witnessed on BitMEX's spot market, the global average price of BTC hovered around $67,400 throughout the event.
Several individuals on the social media platform X have alleged that the price crash was catalyzed by large-scale selling by whale investors.
According to @syq, one entity sold more than 850 BTC ($55.49 million) on BitMEX, causing the XBT/USDT spot pair to plunge to $8,900.
It's important to note that the BitMEX XBT index tracks bitcoin’s price, while the XBT/USDT pair represents its value denominated in Tether, the world’s leading dollar-pegged stablecoin.
Despite the spot market crash, BitMEX's billion-dollar derivatives markets remained relatively stable.
In response to the crash, BitMEX stated on social media that it is actively investigating the large sell orders. In a statement, BitMEX explained, “We initiated an investigation as
soon as we noticed unusual activity on our BTC-USDT Spot Market. All of our systems were functioning normally, but we observed aggressive selling behavior involving a very small number of accounts that
exceeded expected market ranges. We cannot comment on specific user behavior or actions taken, and our investigation is ongoing.” Additionally, BitMEX assured its users that the trading platform is operating normally and that all funds are secure.
