Bitcoin Plummets to $8900 on BitMEX Amid Massive Sell-Off

By: Eliza Bennet

BitMEX experienced an extraordinary event as a rogue user offloaded more than 400 BTC on the exchange, resulting in a sudden price drop of Bitcoin to as low as $8900. This action led to an 87% crash in the digital asset's spot market value yesterday.

However, BitMEX reassured that the event did not affect their derivative markets nor the index price for their popular XBT derivative contracts, adding the trading platform was operating as usual and all funds were secure.

After this shock, Bitcoin price continued to face issues, slumping to about $63,000 in the Asian trading hours which resulted in wiping out over $600 million from crypto futures traders.

Simultaneously, other leading cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Solana, BNB, Cardano, and Avalanche have also suffered substantial losses. Some market experts interpret this fall as a typical trend before the upcoming halving event. They predict a peak in Bitcoin's price five weeks prior to the halving followed by a consolidation period and potential altcoin activity.

Amid these market challenges, 240,000 crypto traders experienced a staggering $623 million loss in just 24 hours. Of these losses, long traders accounted for $516 million, while short traders suffered a $107 million blow, according to Coinglass data. Of all assets, Bitcoin traders faced the highest liquidation, exceeding $150 million, followed by Ethereum traders with $106 million in losses.