Elon Musk’s SpaceX reportedly selling its Bitcoin holdings, the bankruptcy of a Chinese property giant, and fears of interest rate hikes have been among the theories raised as to Bitcoin’s freak price dip.

On Aug. 18 around 9:35 pm UTC, the price of Bitcoin suddenly plummeted over 8% in a span of 10 minutes, taking with it the wider cryptocurrency market, leaving many in the crypto community scratching their heads.

The price of Bitcoin BTC $26,452 fell around 8% in a span of 10 minutes, causing the cryptocurrency to dip well under $26,000 before partially recovering.

BTC was hovering around $27,677 on Aug. 17 at 9:30 pm UTC time before tumbling just over 8% to $25,409, according to Coinmarketcap.

The price of Bitcoin was even lower on the crypto exchange Bitfinex, hitting a low of $24,715 before making a partial recovery back above $26,000.

Initial reactions from the X (Twitter) community have pegged the price drop to reports that SpaceX wrote down the value of BTC it previously acquired by $373 million and sold the cryptocurrency, while others have pointed to China’s Evergrande Group filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York.

The fall has taken Bitcoin's market cap below $500 billion for the first time since June 16 and hit lows not seen since June 20.

Cryptocurrency analyst Will Clemente noted that Bitcoin saw the largest single-day increase in BTC implied volatility this year. 

Despite the dip, BTC is still up 60% since it entered 2023 at about $16,550.

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