Crypto Flash Crash Wiped Out $300 Billion In Less Than 24 Hours, Spurring Massive Bitcoin Liquidations

Crypto Flash Crash Wiped Out $300 Billion In Less Than 24 Hours, Spurring Massive Bitcoin Liquidations

Share to Linkedin After a run-up in prices ushering in Coinbase's long-awaited market debut earlier in the week, the cryptocurrency market plummeted early Sunday after blackouts in China led to massive declines in bitcoin's mining rates“”tanking prices and spurring billions of dollars in liquidations. The market is already on the mend, but bitcoin prices are still down about 10%. An overnight crash that started late Saturday tanked the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies around the world by about $310 billion in less than 24 hours, shrinking the market from more than $2. 2 trillion to less than $1. 9 trillion at around 8 a. m. Eastern, according to crypto-data website CoinMarketCap. As of 9:45 a. m. Eastern, the market has climbed back to roughly $1. 95 trillion, but the price of bitcoin“”floating at about $54, 750“”is still down about 10. 5% over the past 24 hours. Analysts pinned the sudden losses to a stark nearly 50% decline in bitcoin's hash rate, which measures the total processing power being used to mine the cryptocurrency and process its transactions, as a result of blackouts in China's Xinjiang region, which is home to one of the biggest bitcoin mining networks in the world.