Bitfinex Glitch Sends Bitcoin Price Soaring to $155,000
A technical glitch on Bitfinex sent Bitcoin's price skyrocketing to nearly $155,000 in a matter of seconds before rapidly returning to its previous level.
The incident occurred when a surge in volatility led to a sharp distortion of prices in the BTC-PERP perpetual futures pair. While spot Bitcoin was trading around $85,000, the futures contract briefly reached an anomalous price of $153,960.
The anomaly lasted less than a minute and was caused by a liquidity shortage on Bitfinex, according to Coinglass data. Over 117,116 traders were liquidated across the market in the past 24 hours, totaling $688.07 million, with Bitcoin alone accounting for $354.93 million.
The majority of losses came from short positions, which accounted for $598.27 million. The incident highlights the risks of using high leverage in the cryptocurrency derivatives market and illustrates how regional arbitrage bots can step in to flatten price discrepancies.