The Bitstamp cryptocurrency exchange began an internal investigation into the situation that occurred on the night of May 17, when one of the traders successfully implemented several applications for the sale of 5,000 BTC at a price of $ 6,200. This, in turn, led to the massive liquidation of long positions on the BitMEX derivatives exchange and, according to experts, caused a sharp drop in the bitcon rate.

Around 02:25 UTC On May 17, Bitstamp recorded several bitcoin sales at a price of $ 6,200, including one application for 3,645 BTC ($ 26.5 million). At that time, the first cryptocurrency was trading just below $ 8,000.

As a result of the execution of applications, the price of Bitcoin went down sharply. At Bitstamp itself, the rate at some point dropped to $ 6178, after which it grew no less sharply to $ 7300.

A pair of BTC / USD on the Bitstamp exchange. TradingView data

Since the Bitcoin rate on BitMEX is 50% tied to the Bitstamp price (the second 50% is related to Coinbase Pro). it also led to the automatic elimination of long positions on this popular trading platform.

Here is how Davie Wang, a partner in venture capital firm Primitive Ventures, describes the likely sequence of events:

This is what happened

1. A jackass put up an aggregate $ 5000 BTC on stamp

2. Stamp poor depth + algo glitch?

3. Bmx index is 50% on stamp

4. Massive Bmx liq tanked the mkt

5. Despite all the ☝?BTC quickly bounced back to $ 7000

This might be the best chance to BTFMD

– Dovey Wan ? ? (@DoveyWan) May 17, 2019

On Friday afternoon, Bitstamp published an official statement in which it reported that its systems behaved normally, processing applications after they were received.

1/2: A BTC / USD pair sell order today, strongly impacting the order book. Processing, processing and processing of the client’s order.

– Bitstamp (@Bitstamp) May 17, 2019

Nevertheless, the exchange says it considers it necessary to launch an internal investigation into the incident.

2/2: We’ve taken a close look at the investigation.

– Bitstamp (@Bitstamp) May 17, 2019

At the time of publication (11:00 UTC), the weighted average rate of Bitcoin, according to CoinMarketCap, was $ 7,295 with a capitalization of $ 129 billion. Thus, over the past 24 hours, the first cryptocurrency slipped by more than 8%.

We also note a significant decline in the rest of the altcoin market – many of them also lost 8 percent or more. The total market capitalization, on the eve of reaching $ 255 billion, has now dropped below $ 230 billion.

Recall that on the night of Tuesday, May 14, the first cryptocurrency for the first time this year exceeded $ 8,000 .

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