"to virtually nothing" - I believe this is misreading the chart. I had to take a second look myself. The light red column at 5:10pm is trade volume (240K sold). The price stayed between $17-18. The sale of 260k at 5:50pm was priced between $10-$13. The lowest price during the 'crash' is $10.
My theory is there are miners with large amounts of BTC and someone decided to sell a lot in a relatively small market. According to the depth-of-market calculator and there is only about 2000BTC in total on the buying side right now. Its easy to swing the market.
My theory is there are miners with large amounts of BTC and someone decided to sell a lot in a relatively small market. According to the depth-of-market calculator and there is only about 2000BTC in total on the buying side right now. Its easy to swing the market.