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Bitcoin (BTC) price flash crashes to $8,200 on Binance US crypto exchange

An early-morning error led to the value of Bitcoin dropping nearly 87 percent on Binance's crypto exchange.

Chris Jarrard

October 21, 2021 12:00 PM

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The cryptocurrency market woke up to a shock in early trading on Thursday morning. On the Binance US cryptocurrency exchange, the value of Bitcoin (BTC) plummeted nearly 87 percent in value, settling around $8,200. The issue that caused the value spike was reportedly corrected swiftly and the Bitcoin value returned to its normal levels within a couple of minutes.

Despite the massive swing in value on the Binance US exchange, Bitcoin’s value on other exchanges remained stable. There has been speculation on the exact cause of the spike, though Binance offered a short statement to Bloomberg explaining that one of its institutional traders was responsible.

“One of our institutional traders indicated to us that they had a bug in their trading algorithm, which appears to have caused the sell-off,” Binance.US said in the statement. “We are continuing to look into the event, but understand from the trader that they have now fixed their bug and that the issue appears to have been resolved.”

Such volatility in crypto markets is nothing new. With no formal structure and countless competing exchanges, trading in the digital currency is still akin to settling out in the old American West. Earlier this month, decentralized finance platform Synthetify was forced to halt all trading due to a bug in the platform that provides pricing data. The same software responsible for Synthetify’s troubles was also blamed for a September Bitcoin crash.

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Chris Jarrard

Contributing Tech Editor

Chris Jarrard likes playing games, crankin' tunes, and looking for fights on obscure online message boards. He understands that breakfast food is the only true food. Don't @ him.