No, Bitcoin's Flash Crash Wasn't Caused by Turkey or Money Laundering or China or Any Other FUD

Instead, the weekend’s rapid price action had its roots in over-leveraged traders.

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Instead, the weekend’s rapid price action had its roots in over-leveraged traders.

This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.

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In 20 minutes on Saturday night, bitcoin’s price fell by more than 12%. Crypto Twitter raced to explain it as the byproduct of hashrate crashes after Chinese miners went offline, a suspicious report about the U.S. Treasury Department going after crypto money launders, and/or an upcoming ban in Turkey on using cryptos as currency.

NLW argues that all of those explanations are hogwash and that the crash had much more to do with leverage in the system than any fancy narrative.

Image credit: Kayocci/iStock/Getty Images Plus

HOST

Nathaniel Whittemore

NLW is an independent strategy and communications consultant for leading crypto companies as well as host of The Breakdown – the fastest-growing podcast in crypto. Whittemore has been a VC with Learn Capital, was on the founding team of Change.org, and founded a program design center at his alma mater Northwestern University that helped inspire the largest donation in the school’s history.