GBTC Outflow Peaks, BTC Price on BitMEX Flash Crashes Below $10,000, Market Bleeds
The crypto market on March 19th saw significant declines, with Bitcoin plummeting to $65,000 USD and causing many altcoins to bleed out. The pressure stemmed from the redemption pressures of the GBTC fund reaching its peak and large sell orders on the BitMEX exchange.
GBTC Outflow Peaks, BTC Price on BitMEX Flash Crashes Below $10,000, Market Bleeds
After days of bullish trends, the cryptocurrency market on March 19, 2024 (Vietnam time) began a sharp downturn. The majority of altcoins recorded double-digit losses, with those showing the strongest gains in previous days experiencing the largest declines today.
Market movements of top cryptocurrencies at 11:00 AM on March 19, 2024
The decline started with BTC and ETH, primarily due to redemption pressures from Grayscale's GBTC fund. By the end of trading on March 18th (local time), GBTC recorded an outflow of $642.5 million USD - the highest level since the SEC officially greenlit the Bitcoin spot ETF on January 11th.
Simultaneously, there was a somewhat lackluster inflow from other ETFs, insufficient to offset the BTC withdrawn from GBTC. Currently, only BlackRock's IBIT fund has notably significant capital inflows, amounting to $451.5 million USD. Other ETFs have seen minimal buying activity.
Consequently, the net capital flow of ETFs on March 18th was negative $154.3 million USD - breaking a streak of 10 consecutive positive days. Notably, just four trading days ago, ETF Bitcoin inflows hit a record $1 billion USD in a single day, driving BTC prices to touch $73,000 USD.
I'm guessing that they're done (for now?😂) Total volume so far is just shy of 1,000 BTC over 3.5 hours with a low of $8,900. pic.twitter.com/hdVmYM1YkI
— syq (@syq) March 18, 2024
Additionally, the community is abuzz with news of a whale selling nearly 1,000 BTC on the BitMEX exchange within the last 12 hours. Such a large volume has caused prices to plummet by up to 30%, pushing the XBTUSDT (BTC/USDT pair) flash crash down to $8,900 USD.
According to reports from the community, BitMEX has temporarily suspended withdrawal features to investigate the incident.
Whatever you do, don’t look at BitMEX’s XBTUSDT product.
— Zaheer (@SplitCapital) March 18, 2024
A seller has slipped and eviscerated product down to $10,000 BTC. Looks like well over $10m in total losses at this point on what definitely seems like an algo going haywire. pic.twitter.com/v5m7hesZtH
Understandably, the majority of liquidations within the past 12 hours were Long positions, totaling $256 million USD in value.
Derivative market liquidation data, screenshot from CoinGlass at 11:35 AM on March 19, 2024
