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IPFS News Link • Bitcoin

Bitcoin Whale Blows Up, Leading To Forced Liquidation, "Bail-Ins"

• zerohedge.com by Tyler Durden

After hitting a price above $8,000 thanks to recent Blackrock ETF speculation, the cryptocurrency has dropped 10% in the past week, dropping as low as $7,300 today, leaving traders stumped what was causing this latest selloff in the absence of market-moving news.

It turns out the reason may have been a good, old-fashioned margin call forced liquidation, because as Bloomberg reports a massive wrong-way bet left an unidentified bitcoin futures trader unable to cover losses, resulting in a margin call that has "bailed-in" counterparties forced to chip in and cover the shortfall, while threatening to crush confidence in yet another major cryptocurrency venues.

According to a statement posted by Hong Kong's OKEx crypto exchange on Friday, a long position in Bitcoin futures that crossed on Monday, July 30, had a notional value of about $416 million. After Bitcoin prices dropped sharply in subsequent days, OKEx moved to liquidate the position on Tuesday, "but the exchange was unable to cover the trader's shortfall as Bitcoin's price slumped."

The exchange, which identified the problem trader only by an anonymous ID number 2051247, said the position was initiated at 2 a.m. Hong Kong time on July 31.


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