Monday, 24 August, saw a sharp drop in the price of bitcoin, which has declined from about $227 in the morning to $209 by the end of the day, according to CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index. This slump was provoked by Bitfinex’s decision to pause trading and close the order book.

According to a post on Reddit, on 24 August at 5:27 UTC, Bitfinex encountered some problems with its post-trade processing, and halted the trading “to ensure consistency in the order book”. The users were given 15 minutes to cancel the orders before the trading has been resumed. After this the exchange restarted all trading operations.

Last Tuesday, bitcoin dropped by 14% in 30 minutes, decreasing from $249 to $214. After a period of fluctuations, the price returned to the mark of $233, as CoinFox reported earlier. The decline was a result of the huge bitcoin sale on Bitfinex, valued at nearly $9 million or 44,000 BTC. Accordingly, the price of bitcoin fell to $162 and once again reminded everyone of its famous volatility.

Daria Petushkova