🕯 Cryptocurrency Archaeology | The 519 Massacre: The DeFi Myth Vaporized in One Night
May 19, 2021
Following March 12, the cryptocurrency world welcomed another day etched into its DNA —
The 519 Massacre
📉 How bad was that day?
BTC plummeted about 30% in a single day,
from above $40,000,
lowest dipping to around $30,000.
But the true disaster zone wasn't BTC —
but👇
💥 Altcoins & DeFi
Mainstream altcoins generally started their crashes.
DeFi projects that entered at peak prices
👉 fell 50%–80% in one day.
The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi was halved directly.
📌 Market summary in one sentence:
The day before, people were mining and earning interest;
the next day, even the principal was gone.
🔥 The three triggers that ignited the 519
1️⃣ Policy heavyweights came down
Multiple Chinese departments reiterated
"Crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading activities"
Market panic over "full withdrawal" spread rapidly.
2️⃣ High-level bubbles accumulated
DeFi, NFT, and MEME crazily expanded.
Countless projects
👉 had no products, no cash flow, relying entirely on expectations.
3️⃣ Contract leverage spiraled out of control again
Long positions were highly concentrated.
Once the price dropped,
👉 forced liquidations started a chain reaction,
👉 leading to direct crashes.
💣 What happened that night?
Hundreds of billions of dollars in liquidations across the entire network.
Multiple exchanges
👉 experienced delays / price spikes / inability to liquidate.
Liquidity dried up,
panic emotions spiraled out of control.
📌 Many people did not "lose money,"
but were forcibly liquidated out by the system.
🧠 The three iron laws left by 519
① In a bull market, risk often hides in "certainty."
When everyone thinks it "will only rise,"
the danger has already started its countdown.
② DeFi ≠ risk-free printing machine.
The essence of high APY
👉 is high volatility + high leverage.
TVL can be halved in a day,
but faith cannot.
③ Policy is always the biggest variable.
You can calculate the model,
yet cannot predict where the policy will land.
🌱 What happened next?
After 519,
👉 the market entered a long-term oscillation + the prelude to a bear market.
Many DeFi projects
👉 never returned to their peaks.
Countless people realized for the first time:
A bull market can also "kill."
🧾 A message for future generations:
March 12 taught us to respect leverage,
May 19 taught us to respect bull markets.
The true watershed in the cryptocurrency world
has never been bulls vs. bears,
but👇
whether you managed to preserve your principal amidst the chaos.
🕯 In memory of 519.#中美贸易谈判 #美联储FOMC会议 $BTC
