Why Did Bitcoin's Price Slump by $2K in 20 Minutes?

Although BTC was halted at $87,000 once again at the start of the business week, it still managed to hold relatively stable at over $85,600 before the bears took complete control for less than half an hour earlier this morning and drove it south by $2,000.

Naturally, such a violent move spiked the liquidations, as the total value of wrecked positions rocketed to over $550 million on a daily scale. $430 million came in the past 4 hours alone, and almost all were from longs.

Interestingly, ETH longs are responsible for the lion’s share as the altcoin’s price tumbled by roughly 4%, going below $2,600. Other alts, such as XRP, HYPE, DOGE, and ADA, were hit even harder, with losses of up to 6% on a 24-hour scale.

More than 100,000 traders were wiped-out in the past day, with the single-largest liquidation order taking place on Binance. It was worth a whopping $26 million and involved the ETH/USDC pair, according to CoinGlass.

A couple of reasons pop up in the past several hours that could have resulted in this major leg down. At first, Lookonchain reported that the US government has moved a portion of the crypto it holds. In total, they transferred 834 BTC ($71.56 million) to Coinbase Prime, while moving another 40,285 BNB.

As we have explained before, even if the authorities have sold that amount, it doesn’t translate necessarily into breaking Trump’s promise to never sell any BTC.

The second possible reason could be linked to insiders, as Lookonchain updated. 4 newly created wallets deposited $1 million USDC into hyperliquid just minutes before the crash and opened 40x shorts on nearly 150 BTC ($12.5 million).

Bitcoin has dropped below $84,000.

Just before the market dropped, 4 newly created wallets deposited 1M $USDC into #Hyperliquid and opened 40x shorts on 148.49 $BTC ($12.5M).

Insiders?

https://t.co/EzPGCixA9c
https://t.co/idcl5q2vtM
https://t.co/6cNec0Rc3Y
https://t.co/jFDTRz3l9X

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 7, 2026