Prices shot up to those levels for a few seconds at 6:50 a.m. UTC before immediately reverting to parity with other Bitcoin spot markets, according to exchange data. The sudden price wick on the BTC/Tether trading pair was unlikely to have been caused by a trader wanting to pay a nearly 450% premium for Bitcoin. Instead, the bizarre wick likely came amid low liquidity for Bitcoin against Tether on Binance.US. Market depth data shows a $400,000 Bitcoin buy on this trading pair can increase prices by 2%, compared to a minimum of $842,000 for the same impact on a Bitcoin/USD trade pair.
Today, Bitcoin temporarily surged to as much as $138,000 on crypto exchange Binance.US. This sudden price wick was likely due to the low liquidity on the exchange, as market depth data shows a $400,000 Bitcoin buy can increase prices by 2%. This is in comparison to a minimum of $842,000 for the same impact on a Bitcoin/USD trade pair. According to a Kaiko report earlier this month, Binance.US’s market depth has dropped 76% compared to May, suggesting market makers and traders have fled from the exchange.