On Thursday, the native token of Huobi [HT], one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, experienced a sudden drop of 93%, causing widespread panic and confusion among traders. The HT token, affiliated with Tron founder Justin Sun, plummeted from a high of $4.81 to a low of $0.31 on the Huobi exchange, according to TradingView’s pricing source.
The reason behind the sudden crash is still unclear, but a researcher at Kaiko tweeted that $2 million worth of sales were reported in the five minutes leading up to the crash. This amount is significantly higher than the usual buys on the HT-USDT pair, which average around $600,000.
However, the token quickly rebounded from its low point and was trading at $3.70 on Huobi at the time of writing, down by about 24% over the past 24 hours. The rapid price action was significant, given that HT has a market capitalization of approximately $630 million, making it one of the larger cryptocurrencies. Traders have been following the token closely, as Justin Sun has revealed that he is a significant holder of the token, in addition to being a leader of the exchange’s strategy.
Sun took to Twitter to reassure traders that Huobi’s exchange operations, wallets, and backend are safe, and apologized for the “leveraged liquidation on the market caused by a few users.” He also announced that Huobi would create a $100 million fund to improve multi-currency liquidity.
The operation of @HuobiGlobal exchange is #SAFE, the wallets are SAFE, and the backend is SAFE. The recent market fluctuations and the leveraged liquidations were caused by few users triggering a cascade of forced liquidations in the spot and HT contract markets.
— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) March 10, 2023
In conclusion, the sudden drop in HT token’s value on the Huobi exchange has left traders reeling, but the token’s quick rebound has helped ease concerns. It remains to be seen what caused the sudden dip in value, but Justin Sun’s commitment to improving multi-currency liquidity and ensuring the safety of Huobi’s exchange operations is a positive development for the industry.
