The cryptocurrency market entered a frenzy on Monday after rumors falsely suggested that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had approved BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application. The rumors led to over $100 million in liquidations, with one whale losing $50,000 in just 10 minutes.
The rumors came from a post on the microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter) and quickly spread to the point they soon ended up on a Bloomberg Terminal. They quickly dissipated after a BlackRock executive clarified the firm’s Bitcoin ETF application was still under review, but cryptocurrency prices had already reacted to the news.
Bitcoin’s price rallied to surpass the $30,000 mark after the rumors started spreading, and quickly dropped after BlackRock clarified the ETF was still under review.
The price action led to over $100 million in liquidations in just one hour, with over $73 million worth of short positions being liquidated shortly after the price started surging, and nearly $32 million in liquidations for long positions.
According to blockchain monitoring service Lookonchain, the rumors saw a cryptocurrency whale spend 613,201 USDC tokens, worth that exact amount in US dollars, to buy 20.5 BTC. After it was revealed the rumors were false, the whale managed to sell the 20.5 BTC for 563,970 USDC, meaning they lost nearly $50,000 in just 10 minutes.
Despite the pump and dump Bitcoin’s price went through, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has said that the rally revealed there’s “pent up interest in crypto,” and noted that he believes the rally came as a “flight to quality, with all the issues around the Israeli war now, global terrorism.”
BlackRock’s CEO added that the firm has been “hearing from clients around the world about the need for crypto.” As CryptoGlobe reported, the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital Anthony Scaramucci, recently revealed he believes Bitcoin’s market capitalization could reach $15 trillion, around 2,660% above its current $540 billion market capitalization.
Featured image via Unsplash.
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