Bitcoin Hits $0 on Paradex After Starknet Glitch — Mass Liquidations Force Rollback

Core Insights - A technical failure during scheduled maintenance at Paradex led to mass liquidations, causing Bitcoin to briefly trade at zero [1][2] - The incident was linked to a malfunction in the exchange's pricing mechanism or oracle feed, resulting in significant price collapses across multiple perpetual markets [2][3] Group 1: Incident Details - The maintenance occurred around 4:30 a.m. London time, with the most intense liquidation activity reported at 05:02 UTC on January 19, 2026 [2][4] - Long positions in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were liquidated at prices displayed as $0.00, while some short positions were closed at normal market prices around $92,600 [3][4] - The rapid repricing forced leveraged positions to close, exacerbating the situation within seconds [4] Group 2: Recovery Actions - Paradex's engineering director confirmed a chain rollback to block 1,604,710, which represented the last known correct state before the maintenance [4][5] - The rollback effectively canceled all trades, deposits, and liquidations that occurred after the specified block, although profits earned post-rollback would also be erased [5][6] - Such rollbacks are considered a last resort in decentralized systems due to their impact on the immutability principle of blockchains [6] Group 3: Company Operations - Paradex operates on Starknet as a decentralized perpetual futures exchange and has become a significant venue for on-chain derivatives trading [7]