On 12 March 2020 bitcoin sold off with equities and oil as governments woke up to COVID. Coin Metrics’ reference tape shows a first slide from about $7,300 toward $5,700 in the 10:00 UTC hour, then a second leg into 13 March that printed near $3,900. Some venue prints sat closer to $3,800 or below. This is not the FTX weekend article — different year, different company failure. This is a macro day plus the plumbing that turns longs into market sells.
BitMEX, then the centre of bitcoin perpetual leverage, liquidated on the order of a billion dollars of longs across the window. Its engine is supposed to close positions into the book; when the book is the engine, the print air-pockets. A DDoS that slowed BitMEX in the small hours of 13 March coincided with a bounce — the biggest seller stepped away. MakerDAO’s ETH-backed vaults were liquidated in the same stress; some auctions cleared at absurd prices because keepers did not show up in the gas spike, and DAI traded above a dollar. That is a keeper-and-collateral story, not a reason to write a how-to.
What happened
People who were long with borrowed money met a margin call. Venues that allow 50× and 100× discover that “insurance funds” are finite. Spot holders who were not on those venues still saw the candle. Bitcoin’s block production did not halt. Maker’s peg is a design; designs gap.
Why it matters
Safe-haven copy does not survive a dash-for-cash. Leverage is a company product. If you were not on BitMEX or in a Maker vault, the lesson is still not to treat a 40% day as a personality test. See how to read a crypto headline without getting played. See the later BitMEX charging piece if you want the docket, not the engine.
What happens next
A bounce, arguments about DDoS, Maker adding other collateral later, and a May halving that this site already covers as a guide. We will not call a bottom. Nothing here is an instruction to buy, sell, or lever bitcoin or ether.
