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What Triggered the Over 70% Flash Crash?
Bitcoin, trading at just above $87,000, earlier on Wednesday, nosedived over 70% in a sharp wick on the BTC/USD1 trading pair to touch $24,100. It then staged a rapid rebound above $87K.
Notably, the move did not happen on any other major BTC pairs and was strictly linked to USD1, a US dollar-pegged stablecoin launched in March 2025 by Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial.
The incident could have been caused by low liquidity due to fewer active traders, large sell orders, or a display problem. A single large market sell or a liquidation can sweep bids quickly, sending the price far below prevailing market levels until buy orders reappear.
If a buyer bought Bitcoin on Binance during the crazy dip, they would have automatically raked in roughly $62,000 per BTC in unrealized profits.
 
Commenting on the Thursday event, a DeFi researcher going by the online alias OxNobler suggested that the flash crash was triggered by manipulation. According to him, insiders went all in shorting and swiftly dumped the price to $24,000 to make astronomical profits from it.
However, OxNobler did not provide any solid evidence to justify his claims of coordinated insider plays. Many crypto users on X brushed off his claim as a deliberately false analysis intended to spook traders.
Bitcoin is trading at around $87,469, up 0.3% on the day, per CoinGecko data. The lackluster performance comes as U.S. spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continue posting net outflows, with no sign of sustained institutional inflows returning until after the Christmas break.