Bitcoin flash crash liquidates $750 million in one day

A sudden drop in the price of Bitcoin has resulted in widespread liquidations across Bitcoin futures exchanges.

2 min read

Mar 12, 2020

The Bitcoin (BTC) price crash has claimed its first victims. A total of $753 million was liquidated on Bitcoin futures trading exchange BitMEX in the last 24 hours, according to data site DataMish. The majority, some $646 million, came in the last hour.

On crypto exchange Bitfinex's futures platform, $38 million was liquidated.

Crypto commentator Joseph Young noticed the widespread liquidations. He followed up a tweet about them saying, "The halving came. It's just that instead of block rewards, the Bitcoin price halved."

As Decrypt reported, the price of Bitcoin fell $1,000 in the last two hours, plummeting from $7,300 to a low of $5,500. The price of Bitcoin is currently hovering at $6,000.

The whole market has been affected by the price crash. All coins—barring stablecoins—are in the red, with many posing losses between 20 and 30%. Ethereum (ETH) is down 30% to $137 and XRP has dropped 21% to $0.16.

Crypto analyst Mati Greenspan summed it up, saying, "What just happened to the crypto market? That's insane!!"

Messari CEO Ryan Selkis simply said: "Holy liquidation."

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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