It has nothing to do with Covid-19. It has been caused by Bitmex and the btc futures and its liquidation engine, They were even forced to put the site on maintenance to let the market breathe.
So it was just a coincidence that all markets collapsed at the same time on March 12th?
Arthur shut Bitmex down because Bitmex was about to explode into insolvency and socialized losses. They had no bid side liquidity and were several hundred dollars diverged from spot exchanges.
That doesn't indicate Bitmex caused the crash, not by a long shot. I'm amazed at the quickness with which people buy into that theory.
The crash was caused by an abnormally high inflow of BTC to spot exchanges leading up to March 12th, which was probably caused by collapsing global markets:
We believe Bitcoin’s recent price fall can instead be explained by the same macro events driving down stocks and other assets — namely, the tumult caused by the COVID-19 virus.
In the last couple of days, we’ve seen a huge increase in transfers to exchanges, as traders appear to be selling in response to recent market events. Exchange inflows are 80% higher than average, which translates to about 170,000 BTC more than usual hitting markets since Monday. These heightened inflows are overwhelming the relatively illiquid Bitcoin market, causing prices to fall, which in turn leads to further inflows, causing prices to drop further.
