WTF JUST HAPPENED

[Piper67]

1) someone discovered 20k BTC in a basement computer and yelled "I'm rich"!

2) someone's really, really invested in keeping the price down and has the coins to back it up (and has no problem losing a lot of money in the process)

3) someone thinks they can destroy Bitcoin by causing a flash crash... Adorable, really.

Choose one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_choice

Option 4 is someone saw the price rise by 10%, day in day out and thought this is as good as it gets, at least in the short term.  They cashed out their profits before anyone else.  Others saw the price drop and followed, sending it plunging.

Which would qualify it as one hell of a dumb move. Had they divested themselves of the same amount over several days they would've ended up with about 15% more fiat. Doesn't really compute.

But if you're competing against an unknown number of others? Reverse Mexican Stand-off: whoever shoots first, wins.

Not if you're the one causing it. There have been multiple mini-dumps of around 1000 to 2500 coins in the last few days. If the goal was to cash out for the greatest amount of fiat, that's how you do it.

[the founder]

Not if you're the one causing it. There have been multiple mini-dumps of around 1000 to 2500 coins in the last few days. If the goal was to cash out for the greatest amount of fiat, that's how you do it.

I have no idea how dumping something like that could give them maximum cash.    It doesn't make sense.

You have 10 bitcoins that you're riding up out of a total of 30 out there.

You dump all 10 of them in one second,  no buyers, price starts dropping like a rock by the time you unload them you're selling them for 30% lower than what you had them initially for. 

You sell 3 for 10
You sell 4 for 8
You sell 2 for 7

Rather than sell 2 for 10 the first day,   2 for 10 the second and 2 for 11 the third...    you see what I mean?  It doesn't make sense.

[bitcoiners]

WTF JUST HAPPENED

I think it's called a bull trap.  Time will tell.