Tom Lee: Drift lower in crypto reflects market makers' struggles hence broader selling

Crypto Market Analysis - Crypto market has been struggling since October 10th due to a negative shock, resembling the stock market's situation on the same date [2][3] - Market makers in crypto, acting as a central bank, were crippled by a significant liquidation on October 10th, impacting liquidity [3][4] - The recent decline in crypto prices reflects this market maker impairment, with a recovery potentially taking 8 weeks, similar to the situation in 2022 [4][5] - Bitcoin and Ethereum are seen as leading indicators for equities due to the unwind and weakened liquidity [6] Liquidation Event Details - On October 6th or 7th, Bitcoin reached $125,000, later dropping to around $120,000, and is now at approximately $86,000 [7] - An automatic liquidation feature (ADL) was triggered on a specific exchange when a stable coin's price deviated from $1 to $0.65 due to liquidity issues [8] - This ADL resulted in the liquidation of almost 2 million crypto accounts, even those that were previously profitable [9] - The error was essentially a code bug, as the pricing for the stable coin should have been pulled from across exchanges rather than relying on internal quotes [10] Regulatory and Risk Perspective - The ADL code and the way prices are pulled will likely be revised to prevent recurrence [13] - Investors should avoid excessive leverage in crypto due to the inherent risks associated with DeFi and potential code errors [14]