Bitcoin experienced a dramatic price swing on the popular cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX yesterday, raising concerns about unusual trading activity.
The price of Bitcoin plummeted to as low as $8,900 against Tether’s USDT stablecoin on BitMEX, a stark contrast to the price exceeding $66,000 on other major exchanges at the time.
The price of the flagship cryptocurrency rebounded quickly to surpass $64,000 in a matter of hours, as Bloomberg reported. According to a BitMEX spokesperson, the incident was a result of “aggressive selling behavior” from a limited number of accounts.
The exchange noted that the incident did not impact its derivatives markets, pointing out it “did not move mark prices, and no liquidations were triggered by it because our indices are independent and battle-tested.”
BitMEX noted that the aggressive selling behavior was “simply too bif and frequent” for independent market markets and other traders to react to on time, adding it does now employ internal market makers.
Independent sources pointed to the potential sale of nearly 1,000 Bitcoin, valued at around $66 million, as a catalyst for the crash, pointing out on social media the sellers endured significant slippage to get their orders filled.
This incident comes amidst a period of volatility for Bitcoin. After reaching record highs earlier in the month, fueled by the launch of U.S. Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds, the cryptocurrency has fallen roughly 14%.
Despite the recent dip, Bitcoin remains up nearly 50% year-to-date and is currently trading at around $62,000, down from a new high above the $73,400 mark seen earlier this month.
Featured image via Unsplash.
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