Home / Markets / Cryptocurrency / Bitcoin appears to crash 87% in a flash on Binance’s US venue Bitcoin appears to crash 87% in a flash on Binance’s US venue Premium Volume on the exchange in that minute was 592.8 Bitcoins, which are worth just shy of $40 million at current prevailing prices. (REUTERS) 1 min read . Updated: 21 Oct 2021, 09:54 PM IST Bloomberg The price of Bitcoin appeared to rapidly — and only temporarily — plunge about 87% on Binance’s U.S. exchange Thursday morning, sinking to as low as $8,200 from around $65,000. The price did nothing like that on other venues, and on Binance the level almost immediately snapped back to where it had been. The plunge occurred at 7:34 a.m. New York time, according to Binance’s website. Volume on the exchange in that minute was 592.8 Bitcoins, which are worth just shy of $40 million at current prevailing prices. Mistakes like this happen throughout finance when, for instance, traders mess up details of their intended trades, entering the wrong price or order size. An erroneously large trade, as one example, can overwhelm an exchange’s order book, leading to a quick and massive decline. The entire U.S. stock market famously flash crashed back in May 2010, though equities have mostly avoided trouble since that era. This is the latest in a string of recent high-profile trading problems in crypto. Synthetify, a new decentralized exchange, was forced to shut down for a while earlier this month shortly after its debut because of bad data provided by the Pyth Network, a price feed backed by some of the world’s most well-known trading and exchange firms. Pyth malfunctioned another time in September, erroneously making it appear that Bitcoin had crashed 90%.
Developed in 2012 by Toronto-based programmer Vitalik Buterin, and backed by an initial $18 million crowdfund, Ether (ETH) is a cryptocurrency that underpins a blockchain network called Ethereum. While Bitcoin was designed to be a digital currency, Ethereum is a more general implementation of blockchain technology.

— “What it has nurtured, though, are Skarlatos’ political ambitions, providing $65,000, records show, to his 2022 bid for a rematch with longtime Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio,” who is one of a number of members being targeted by the GOP for the midterms. Skarlatos, who became famous after he helped disrupt an attack on a train bound for Paris by an armed Islamic State sympathizer, started his nonprofit a month after losing to DeFazio. He named it “15:17 Trust — a reference to the train attack. It was registered in Virginia, with his campaign treasurer also serving as the group’s treasurer, records show.”
For many people, crypto is a type of alternative investment. Just as you can buy and trade stock in public companies, you can buy cryptocurrency with the hope that it will increase in value over time, allowing you to cash out for a profit at a later date. Some people invest in crypto less for the belief that it will become a popular currency and more as a bet on the blockchain technology behind it.