Bitcoin’s Price Flash Crashes to $51K on Bitstamp

Bitcoin touched a fresh high of $58,000 on October 12 according to data from CoinGecko. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s prices are at around $57,000, and it is still pushing towards higher resistance levels. Since the beginning of October, Bitcoin has been posting new monthly highs, and the recent price has been a five-month high for the coin since May 2021.

Over the past two weeks, Bitcoin’s gains stand at over 35% and around 18% in the past seven days. This recent bullish rally has been attributed to the support by institutional investors.

Flash Crash on Bitstamp

Despite Bitcoin’s price movement being one of the most-watched in the market, there was a discrepancy on one of the leading exchange platforms. A trader took to Twitter detailing a flash crash on the Bitstamp exchange where prices dropped to around $51,000 after a trader made a $40 million spot sale.

Despite the huge flash crash in Bitstamp, the price of Bitcoin on other cryptocurrency exchanges remained unaffected. Before the flash crash, Bitcoin was trading at $55,000 on the exchange before taking a major dive. An analysis of the crash also shows that around 212 Bitcoins were sold during that period, which most likely caused the crash. Nevertheless, the price recovered just as fast.

Such crashes are a common occurrence in the crypto sector. The value of an asset can fall by double-digit percentages in a few seconds, especially if a major sell-off happens. Altcoins are also not spared from such dips. Polkadot suffered a similar crash on its perpetual futures contract, where the prices dropped from around $33 to $0.20 earlier this year.

Bitcoin Leading in Crypto Gains

Bitcoin has been one of the best performing cryptocurrencies this month. On September 30, Bitcoin fell to below $41,000, but it has made a swift recovery by over 30% to reach $57,000. Most of the gains made by Bitcoin this month have been attributed to retail investors and whale addresses that accumulated more coins during the dip.

Data from Google Trends has shown that retail investors are yet to join the bullish rally despite the gains. This could indicate that an even stronger bullish rally could occur in the coming months after these small traders enter the market.

On the other hand, the Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index shows that Bitcoin has moved to a territory of “extreme greed”, attributed to the recent price gains. When extreme greed is detected, it could lead to a price adjustment in the opposite direction.