Over the Christmas period, Bitcoin saw a sudden flash crash to $24,000 on the BTC / USD1 trading pair on Binance.
This shocking price quickly rebounded, swooped upon by arbitrage bots and traders, meaning some orders did indeed get filled at this bargain level.
According to Binance, the crash only occurred on the BTC/USD1 trading pair. USD1 is a stablecoin launched by the Trump family and World Liberty Financial, and is currently the seventh largest stablecoin by market cap.
Other much larger trading pairs such as BTC/USDT and BTC/USDC, were not affected, staying at around $86,400.
Market Manipulation or Liquidity Event?
There’s been some head-scratching around whether this was a liquidity event caused by a thin order book or whether something more sinister was at play.
Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, posted on X that newer trading pairs such as the BTC/USD1 pair can have low liquidity, meaning there are not many buyers and sellers actively trading this market.
He went on to say that one large market order can spike prices, in this case it looks like a large market sell order didn’t have enough buy orders to absorb it at normal prices.
Catherine Chan, Head of Business Development at Solv Protocol, further explained that Binance and USD1 launched a 20% fixed APR deposit promo on 24 December. As a result, many users swapped USDT to USD1, in fact so many that it pushed USD1 slightly above its Dollar peg.
Someone then made a large market order, selling BTC to get USD1 immediately, causing the price to get pushed all the way down to $24,000 because of the low liquidity on this pair.
She called it a liquidity event, and wished whoever managed to buy Bitcoin at $24,000 a Merry Christmas, going on to say that “We’ll for sure see many more of these” liquidity events.
Others questioned past ties between Changpeng Zhao and the Trump organization, with CZ having been pardoned by Trump on October 23, 2025. While there is no evidence of any connection to the flash crash, some have speculated that anyone with insider knowledge could potentially benefit.
Why Self-Custody Wallets Are Gaining Popularity
With these multiple and continuing episodes on Binance, many investors prefer to keep their crypto assets in their own self-custody wallets, away from exchanges.
With self-custody you alone are in control of your crypto, there’s no reliance on a third party to hold your private keys. This was the original ethos of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.
One self-custody wallet with over 500,000 users is Best Wallet, a secure and easy-to-use multi-chain wallet. It supports over 1,000 assets across more than 60 blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, and Solana.
This wide selection of coins allows users to manage their portfolio in one place, without exposing themselves to the risks of centralized exchanges.
The integration of Fireblocks not only ensures that crypto funds stored inside the wallet remain secure, but accessing it doesn’t rely on remembering long and overbearing passphrases.
Best Wallet’s extremely strong security system is backed by its anonymous nature. Unlike many wallets that log user data or link accounts to email addresses, Best Wallet keeps everything off the radar. No personal details are required, making it ideal for anyone who prioritizes privacy above all else.
The platform is also renowned for the large variety of facilities that it offers. The goal is to build a completely advanced Web3 hub within its ecosystem, offering several features like cross-chain swaps, portfolio management, fiat payment, and staking options with competitive APY rewards.
The wallet goes further by offering an excellent launchpad, enabling investors to gain early exposure while they are still at their zero stage.
Additional perks that this wallet offers include NFT integration and the ability to connect other wallets to the app and manage all your assets in one place.
With a solid reputation for security, privacy, and functionality, Best Wallet continues to be one of the best non-custodial wallets in the crypto space.
Several crypto influencers have also featured the wallet in their YouTube channels and websites, all of them dubbing it the best option in the space.
Download Best Wallet
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