May 19, 2021 — The Great Flash Crash
This is the most significant event tied to today’s date. On May 19, 2021, crypto markets experienced the largest flash crash since March 2020, with more than a 46% decrease in $ETH value and a 32% decrease in BTC value in less than 12 hours. The brutal sell-off wiped more than half a trillion dollars off the market, with $BTC Bitcoin falling more than 20% in early morning trading and sinking below price levels not seen since January. Dogecoin tumbled by more than 30%.
Altogether, positions valued at more than $8 billion got liquidated across all crypto markets. The crash was driven by a combination of factors — partly in response to Elon Musk’s announcement that Tesla would suspend Bitcoin payments due to environmental concerns, along with #China reiterating that digital currencies cannot be used for payments.
Binance also experienced an outage during the crash, halting trading for retail clients and stopping the provision of transaction data — adding to the chaos and raising serious questions about exchange reliability.
May 19, 2025 — A Very Different Story
Just last year, May 19th told a very different tale. Coinbase joined the S&P 500, replacing Discover Financial Services, making it one of Wall Street’s most elite listings alongside Apple, Amazon, and JPMorgan. CME also launched XRP futures amid growing institutional interest, while the Senate was set to vote on the GENIUS Act to regulate stablecoins.
So May 19 has a dual legacy in crypto — one of its most catastrophic crashes in 2021, and a landmark moment for institutional legitimacy in 2025.