Hope you got some more Ethereum during the GDAX flash crash!steemCreated with Sketch.

in ethereum •  8 years ago 

Don't freak out!

But... yes, momentarily Ethereum dropped to $13 on GDAX.

gdax-eth-chart.png

As you can see on the chart, there was about a 30 minute window where Ethereum prices dropped thousands of percent. Hopefully you were one of the lucky people that bought into that drop, because, as of writing, the price recovered to around $330.

In that moment of volatility, it was possible to make a lot of money (as well as lose a lot of money :/ ).

Instead of only focusing on the price, we should be asking ourselves what exactly triggered such an event. Is this somehow related to the problems recent ICOs have exposed on the network? Or could it have been a very well executed market manipulation maneuver?

Or ... (this is no accusation, merely a possibility) was it a bug in GDAX ?


Let me hear your thoughts in the comments. Resteem for immediate follow.

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

I was at work all day when this happened and my phone has been blowing up from friends asking what the hell happened to ethereum!

I believe from what I read, the status ico was so hyped and huge that it flooded the exchange orders and caused it to create a huge lag. When the lag finally got through a bunch of sell orders were accidently processed on gdax causing a huge spike in sell (including panic sells) to $13.

What we should be doing is finding new servers for Coinbase or limiting the amount of traffic that goes into Coinbase. Ethereum has so much traffic now that these huge exchanges cannot handle the insanity. Hopefully they fix it because it's not the technology of ethereum that is bad, but it's the exchange servers that cannot maintain themselves.

I agree. Seems a lot of these places actually don't hire very competent systems admins. If they would increase their IT budget maybe things could go a bit smoother.

Followed btw, will be keeping up with you

Honestly they're probably good and smart people but they're probably understaffed like crazy. If you look at the growth of crypto it has been growing insanely exponentially. They probably weren't at all prepared for the amount of staff they would really need or the changes they would need to make. Again, hopefully we learn from this and are more prepared when the time comes!

Thanks I appreciate it. I'll be following eth and hopefully some other coins closely these next couple of days.

I've since placed a low limit order, just in case it happens again in the future. And now we wait. :-)

I completely disagree: This is DEFINITELY a reason to freak out.
The amount was too big to be a whale. Which means it's a bug.

If it's a bug, who just ate most of that massive loss selling eth at a super cheap price?

Oh... gdax did. Which means there is a very real possibility that GDAX just lost a HUGE amount of customer funds. Pull your money out now, and play it safe. If GDAX eats it and you are still in it, you wont get your money back.

This is not volatility, this is much worse. If it is due to lack of hardware on exchanges causing lag etc then this is a relatively easy fix, however, if it is something else then it is time to worry. If you bought in at $13 I congratulate you, but I would be looking to take some of those juicy profits now, just in case!! Diversity is the name of the game, especially in these early stages.

Well, all new technology will have bugs. As a software developer, I know this all too well. I wouldn't be freaking out at all right now.

However, you mention diversity. This is a wise strategy with any investment. Never put all your eggs into a single basket.

I actually had a very small amount in ETH during the crash (it was in other ERC20 type tokens) and was able to accumulate more and make a quick profit. Staying diversified offsets your risks greatly.

I agree. You can't take anything for granted. But especially in these sorts of markets you need to diversify. Iam sure crypto has a great future but which coins survive has yet to be seen!

That was an "all in" moment missed then!

They'll be another soon enough...

  • Never leaves house or takes eyes off charts again

Tried to buy ETH today at $298 but Coinbase seemed offline for a bit.. $13? Im wondering if anyone was successful at buying cheap today? If so..which exchange did you use? Thanks

I was a Stock Broker for 29 years and saw this Flash Crash stuff in the Equity Markets too..............

What is your opinion about the valuation of these coins? Deloitte predicts 10% global GDP by 2025 in crypto. Things would be quite incredible at that stage.

In your opinion it is a whale that sold everything? The ethereum developer is very competent and will solve the problem soon and ethereum will resume its flight. The panic seller makes the day a few :)

I offered a few possibilities that ran through my head in the post. I believe it could have been attributed to a number of things, but what really triggered it is currently unknown .. to the general public, at least.

A whale could have triggered a large sale, that led to bot traders and stop-losses executing and driving the price down more. But the amount of Ethereum that would take would be immense. I think the most plausible scenario is a software glitch.

The ethereum subreddit seems to believe it's a whale.

When GDAX data is reliable (order books, trades) again and some time goes by to analyze it, we will find answers. If it was a whale, there will likely be some very large trades happening in a short period of time with intervals at strategic points.

Feel bad for the people who got called haha

For real. I can't imagine selling into that

I heard about that... that be nut if that person got it at that price