By Marko Vidrih on The CapitalThe Bitcoin exchange rate plummeted below the level of $6,000 today in just few minutes.BinanceOn the Binance exchange, paired with the stablecoin USDT, Bitcoin reached $5,550, on Coinbase along with the fiat dollar, it reached $5,578. On BitMEX, the minimum was $5,600. The last time BTC traded at these levels was in May 2019.As of 1:55 p.m., the cryptocurrency has rebounded by almost $1,000 and is trading with a wide spread between $6,400 and $6,700 on leading exchanges.At 2:01 p.m., Bitcoin is again at around $5,800, featuring colossal levels of volatility.TradingViewThe liquidation volume on BitMEX in the last hour has exceeded half a billion dollars.skew.BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes did not foresee a movement of this magnitude. An hour and a half before today’s collapse, he presented his own analysis of the market situation, in which he called $6,000 as the extreme minimum level. At that time, Hayes explained the rather bearish forecast because of the panic sentiment due to coronavirus, aggravated by sales of hedge funds on the already downward direction of the market.At the same time, the CEO of BitMEX believes in the status of Bitcoin as a protective asset and, at least at the time of publication, considered the level of $20,000 to be probable by the end of the year.Bitcoin is currently trading at $6,094. Altcoins are losing 25–35%. Ether below $140, XRP about $0.155. Bitcoin SV, Tezos and Chainlink turned out to be the leaders in the fall.Coin360Author: Marko VidrihFeatured image credit: PixabayFintech MarksThe Capitalhttps://medium.com/media/3b6b127891c5c8711ad105e61d6cc81f/hrefBitcoin Collapsed to $5,550 in a Matter of Minutes was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.