Crypto market update: How a 20,000 BTC buy order sent Bitcoin price to new 2019 highs

Report across the crypto sphere claim that yesterday surge that sent Bitcoin to trade a 5-month high could have been caused by a 20,000 BTC order worth about $100 million. This order is believed to have been the catalyst to the sudden surge.

As discussed in our reporting yesterday, the reason behind the surge was unknown. However, like many analysts and experts on the market, we linked the surge to Bitcoin breaking above the critical $4,200 couple with some emotion of excitement from the part of traders. Besides, the crypto market is a young market, roughly 10 years old and, therefore, a sudden surge in a certain direction is likely to trigger a further correction.

According to Reuters an order worth $100 million that was spread across several exchanges including Kraken, Coinbase and Bitstamp was the force behind the surge in Bitcoin price. Moreover, a report from CNBC agrees with this suggestion. The CEO of BCB group an OTC trading desk catering for institutional clients, Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie:

“There has been a single order that has been algorithmically-managed across these three venues, of around 20,000 BTC. If you look at the volumes on each of those three exchanges—they were in-concert, synchronized, units of volume of around 7,000 BTC in an hour.”

However, it is not clear how a large buy order could have triggered such a surge unless it was supported by high trading volumes. And the high trading volume is the one parameter that is keeping Bitcoin above $4,900 and trending closer to $5,000 at the time of press.