Watch What Happens When Someone Dumps Tens Of Thousands Of Bitcoin At Below-Market Rates

Recently, an individual or group put an estimated 30,000 bitcoin onto the market at a price of $300 per coin. It isn’t clear who was behind the sale, or what their motives were, but the sale meant millions of dollars in revenue for whomever pulled the trigger. Given the number of coins that were made available at the $300 mark, then below the market price, it took quite some time for purchasers to chew through them.

The sale didn’t flood the market and collapse it, as the coins were offered for a specific price and at a floating rate — $300 or go away, essentially. Following the sale, the price of bitcoin rose. It currently trades for more than $340 per coin.

Why, then, dump the massive pile at $300? Liquidity and price stability. If the person or persons behind the sale had tried to sell them in chunks at market rates, they could have disturbed the price balance and pushed the value of a bitcoin below the $300 mark if they were aggressive enough.

Instead, they made their own market with what appears to have been limit sale at a discount — the market was willing to bear the sale because they were buying at cheaper-than-normal rates, the sales person or group got to cash out, and presumably everyone walked away happy.

Anyone who bought in the sale made a quick 10 percent or greater profit directly following.

An accounting source of mine, after reviewing the charts and images, called it “blatant market manipulation.” Well then.

Why sell tens of thousands of coins at all? If you had an immediate financial need, it might make sense. Or you simply lost faith in the currency and wanted out. That or you might have a total of, say 100,000 coins, and wanted to protect your downside. Now, no matter what, you have millions in cash to live on, the price of bitcoin be damned.

Now, to the fun stuff. Ever seen an order book like this? (Image via Despair_Collector on Reddit, Imgur.)

And just in case you wanted to see the massive run in real-time, check the following video for even more: (Via Voogru on Reddit)

Someone recently commented that it felt like the Wild West days were returning to bitcoin, with more dramatic price swings and shenanigans like the above. Let’s hope.