In brief:
- The crypto markets lost $50 Billion in market capitalization as a result of today’s flash crash.
- Bitcoin (BTC) fell to an average of $5,500 on major spot markets.
- Chainlink (LINK) worst hit by the carnage as the cryptocurrency briefly traded at $0.0001 before rebounding above $2.
March 12th, 2020, will be forever etched onto the memories of crypto traders as the markets lost $50 Billion in market capitalization in a matter of minutes as a result of the global impact of the Coronavirus. This, in turn, saw Bitcoin (BTC) fall from levels above $7,800 to $5,500 in a matter of minutes. This crash by BTC was the equivalent of a 30% drop.
ChainLink (LINK) Momentarily trades at $0.0001
However, the worst-hit crypto was Chainlink (LINK) which momentarily traded at a value of $0.0001 on Binance’s spot market as a result of the market turmoil. The 1-hour chart above gives a better visual cue of the situation.
What Exactly Happened to LINK/USDT on Binance?
At the time of writing this, there has been no direct communication by Binance on what really happened to the LINK/USDT spot trading pair. The only assumption that can be made is that the price drop was organic and due to panic selling as investors placed market sell-orders to lessen their losses during the flash-crash. Consequently, supply exceeded demand and only the lowest bids at $0.0001 were available. Consequently, this is what got filled in the panic market selling.
Further analyzing the situation from the point of view of the individual who bought at this ‘insanely’ discounted price, we can conclude that s/he is one lucky trader. LINK/USDT is trading at $2.37 on the spot market on Binance at the time of writing this. This indicates a 2,370,000% increment in value from $0.0001. One hundred dollars would have easily been converted into $2,370,000 in a matter of minutes.
LINK Dropped to $1.813 on Binance Futures
Double-checking the uniformity of this event across all Binance platforms, we find that the futures contract on LINK/USDT only fell to $1.813 in the same time period. LINK/USDT is currently trading at $2.30 on Binance futures at the time of writing this.
(Image courtesy of Hermes Rivera on Unsplash)