Despite the 15-minute flash crash that took the price of Bitcoin all the way down to $8,327 on Sunday (May 10), Bitcoin has managed to stage a nice little recovery, and — according to data from CryptoCompare — it is currently staying out of trouble above the $8,600 level.
The aforementioned Bitcoin flash crash occurred between 00:05 UTC and 00:20 UTC on Sunday (May 10), which was approximately 48 hours before Bitcoin’s next (third) halving; this resulted in the average price of Bitcoin across the exchanges tracked by the CryptoCompare Index to drop from $9,483 to $8,327, i.e. a loss of 12.2%.
Popular crypto analyst/trader Josh Rager said a few hours later (around 03:20 UTC on May 10) that the key support level was $8,600:
Quick 2-minute $BTC market update
Here's what to watch pic.twitter.com/EFTK3CUVtY
— Josh Rager 📈 (@Josh_Rager) May 10, 2020
Although Bitcoin fell to as low as $8,308 around 16:55 UTC on May 10, currently (as of 21:02 UTC on May 10), Bitcoin is trading comfortably above the $8,600 level.
Some well-known Bitcoin HODLers, such as Jason A. Williams, Co-Founder & Partner at Morgan Creek Digital (where Anthony Pompliano enjoys a similar position), made it clear that there were not alarmed by the huge drop in Bitcoin’s price, and that they saw such dips in price as great buying opportunities. As you can see from the two tweets shown below, Williams bought 10 BTC at $8,722 and 10 more BTC once the price had dropped to $8,471:
I bought this dip. I am buying all the way down to $6800.
Let's go! #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/A4FhxIFhpH
— Jason A. Williams (@JWilliamsFstmed) May 10, 2020
Chill. Learn. pic.twitter.com/qwmhlWcMWj
— Jason A. Williams (@JWilliamsFstmed) May 10, 2020
Preston Pysh, Co-Founder of The Investor’s Podcast Network, found an interesting way to put things into perspective:
The S&P 500 measured in #Bitcoin since 2012.
With block reward halvings marked on the chart (blue line).
-99.94% loss since 2012 pic.twitter.com/UWalltAW2z
— Preston Pysh (@PrestonPysh) May 9, 2020
In case you are wondering why this flash crash occurred, Mati Greenspan, Founder of FinTech and crypto consultancy Quantum Economics had this explanation:
For anyone wondering what that 15% drop was about this morning, it seems most likely that the market just shook out some of the high leverage traders.
Too many scam exchanges out there offering 100X leverage causes this type of volatility. https://t.co/LEb9wrCFD8
— Mati Greenspan (tweets are not trading advice) (@MatiGreenspan) May 10, 2020
As for those people who are angry about the sell-off and screaming “market manipulation”, Scott Melker, a crypto trader at Texas West Capital, had this to say to them:
Manipulation is printing endless dollars and bailing out failing zombie companies. The stock market is completely fixed.
Bitcoin is a free market. Whales dumping on you is not manipulation. There’s a buyer for every sell order.
— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) May 10, 2020
Everyone screams MANIPULATION! when they lose money – generally when they are on the wrong side of a significant move. You losing money does not mean that a force is conspiring against you. Just means you lost.
If you think the market is manipulated, don’t put your money in it.
— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) May 10, 2020
And to end on a positive note, it is worth turning to Barry Silbert, the founder and CEO of incubator and crypto-focused venture capital firm Digital Currency Group (DCG), which is the parent of crypto asset management firm Grayscale Investments.
Silbert pointed out that, as of May 8, Grayscale’s total assets under management (AUM) had reached a new all-time high:
$3.7 billion in AUM. All time high for @GrayscaleInvest https://t.co/QtNhkYpikg
— Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) May 9, 2020
