Bitcoin briefly posted $24,111 on Binance in a sharp wick on the BTC/USD1 trading pair late Tuesday before returning above $87,000 within seconds, according to exchange data.
The move did not show up on any other major BTC pairs and appears isolated to USD1, a stablecoin launched by Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial. The pair then normalized, with bitcoin once again trading near prevailing market prices.
These sudden “wicks” are usually caused by low liquidity – or a possible posting problem – rather than a broader crash. New or less traded stablecoin pairs often have fewer market makers offering tight prices, meaning the order book can be shallow.
A single large market sell-off, liquidation, or automated trade routed through the pair can quickly wipe out bids, forcing the price to print well below the actual market level until buy orders reappear.
Such disruptions may also be triggered by temporary pricing issues related to widening spreads, erroneous quotes from a market maker, or trading robots reacting to abnormal prints.
During quieter hours, the effect may be amplified as fewer participants are active to absorb order flow and restore price parity.
Although the wick can look dramatic on a chart, traders generally treat these prints as a microstructural event rather than a signal of Bitcoin’s underlying direction.
Nonetheless, this highlights the risks of using thin pairs for execution, particularly when stablecoins or trade routes continue to generate liquidity.
