Since Bitcoin (BTC) witnessed a drop this week to $64,000, the crypto asset has not been able to regain its momentum, with the price falling. even smaller. This led to a general market decline that affected altcoins.
Bitcoin drops to $8,900 on BitMEX exchange
In a devastating turn of events, Bitcoin witnessed a sharp decline on Seycelles-based cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX on Monday. Reports Blockchain media outlet Wu Blockchain revealed that Bitcoin has fallen to around $8,900 following a massive sell-off of BTC on the platform.
Wu Blockchain reported that a user sold more than 400 BTC, which caused the price of Bitcoin to drop to the above-mentioned value. In the space of two hours, the unidentified user sold 400 BTC in groups of 10 to 50 BTC.
Consequently, the stability of the BitMEX market was impacted as the user sold assets at incredibly low prices. However, according to reports from Blockchain Daily, the event was short-lived as prices returned to normal levels.
In response to the development, BitMEX assured the crypto community that it is “investigating strange behavior” involving users selling substantial orders on the spot market for BTC-USDT.
The crypto platform further stated that while the investigation is ongoing, “the derivatives market will still be operational, including the index price for its popular XBT derivatives contracts.” Furthermore, the exchange confirmed the security of users’ funds and assets, and the platform is “working normally.”
Given that the price of Bitcoin was sitting at $68,000 before the incident, the drop indicates a decline of over 87%. After falling to $8,900, Bitcoin recovered, but the abnormal price fluctuations lasted another 30 minutes before things completely returned to normal.
Since then, the development has sparked a huge frenzy in the cryptocurrency scene, leaving the community pondering the reason for the crash. Several crypto enthusiasts believe that the incident was a move orchestrated by BitMEX to manipulate prices to liquidate investors and end up making a lot of money.
A major accident may occur
As Bitcoin continues to fall, gold advocate and crypto critic Peter Schiff foreseen a greater drop in prices. Initially, Peter Schiff drew the crypto community’s attention to the 2021 rally in which BTC peaked at $69,000.
However, the largest cryptocurrency witnessed a collapse the following year and by November 2021, it was already trading at $16,000. As a result, Schiff mocked Bitcoin enthusiasts, asking, “How many of them still have laser eyes on their profiles.”
So, considering that most are currently more bullish on BTC, Schiff anticipates that a “bigger drop” is likely on the horizon.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin price is trading at $62,943, indicating a decline of over 7% in the last 24 hours. Its market value fell by more than 7%, while its trading volume maintained a steady increase of 63% in the last day.
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com
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