$19 Billion Bitcoin And Crypto Wipeout: What Caused The XRP Price To Crash 50% In A Single Candle?

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The crypto market suffered a devastating $19 billion wipeout as XRP and Bitcoin (BTC) were caught in a brutal sell-off that shocked traders worldwide. Within minutes, XRP wiped out over 50% of its value, dropping down to $0.77 before partially rebounding, marking one of its steepest intraday losses in history. While early reports blamed political tensions following US President Donald Trump’s sudden tariff on Chinese imports, data now suggests that the crash was amplified by a major glitch in Binance’s internal pricing system, and other contributing technical factors. 

Catalysts Behind The XRP Price Crash And Crypto And Bitcoin Meltdown

Between October 10 and 11, XRP experienced a violent flash crash on Binance, plunging over 54% in a single 30-minute candle. In less than 24 hours, over a million traders were also liquidated. This unprecedented drop came during what analysts are now calling “the worst crypto liquidation event in crypto history,” with nearly $19.3 billion in open positions wiped out in a single day.

At first, much of the blame was directed at Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese tech imports, which triggered a wave of panic across global risk assets. However, the XRP and broader market collapse went far beyond normal macro-driven volatility. On-chain analysts traced the sequence to a $60 million spot market dump on Binance, which set off an internal pricing malfunction. Binance’s oracle system, which marks collateral values such as wBETH, BNSOL, and USDe, momentarily failed, possibly leading to forced liquidations across XRP and other major crypto assets. 

This oracle mispricing allegedly turned a $60 million order into a $19 billion loss. XRP, being one of Binance’s most heavily leveraged assets, absorbed a significant amount of the impact as margin calls liquidated thousands of positions within minutes. A whale had reportedly opened $1 billion in short positions just before the Trump tariff announcement, adding more suspicion and fuel to the collapse. Binance later confirmed abnormal pricing and paid $283 million in restitution, but the damage to XRP and the broader market was already done. 

A Deeper Dive Into The Market-Wide Crash

Analysts say that the root cause of the $19 billion crypto market crash was Binance’s “Unified Account” system, which priced collateral using internal data instead of decentralized oracles. Between October 6 and 14, Binance was transitioning to oracle-based pricing, creating an exploitable 8-day gap. During that period, coordinated actors reportedly dumped $60 million to $90 million in USDe exclusively on Binance, driving its price to $0.65 while it stayed near $1 on other exchanges.

This artificial depeg within Binance’s system triggered widespread panic, as attackers were said to hold $1.1 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum shorts on decentralized exchanges, profiting about $192 million as prices plunged. Analysts noted that Ethena’s USDe remained fully collateralized on all other exchanges, proving that the issue allegedly stemmed from Binance’s infrastructure, not the stablecoin. 

The combination of technical flaws, alleged manipulation, and tariff-driven fear transformed a contained exploit into a market-wide catastrophe. Despite the chaos, analysts remain cautiously optimistic about XRP’s recovery, predicting a strong rally to new ATHs soon.

Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com

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