Tomorrow will be 519 again. As an old trader who experienced that catastrophe, the scene that day is still vividly remembered. I still recall the feeling of wild fluctuations, the instant shift from greed to fear—how many people were wiped out that day. Looking back now, the craziness of the 519 event was truly unmatched and hard to replicate.

Speaking of the origins of the 519 incident, it was actually the result of multiple factors stacking up. The most direct trigger was Elon Musk’s series of tweets. This guy was previously a staunch supporter of Bitcoin; Tesla invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in Q1 2021 and announced it would accept Bitcoin payments. He often hyped up meme coins like Dogecoin on Twitter, which fueled market sentiment and enthusiasm at the time.

But the turning point came quickly. On May 12, Elon Musk suddenly announced that Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin payments, citing environmental concerns over mining energy consumption. Bitcoin’s price immediately dropped from $57,000 to $46,000. A few days later, he hinted on Twitter that he might sell his Bitcoin holdings, which triggered market panic. Everyone was speculating about what tricks this big player might be up to next.

Besides Musk’s remarks, regulatory signals from China also played a role. On May 18, the three major associations jointly issued a notice banning virtual currency trading activities. Inner Mongolia also set up a mining reporting platform. Although these weren’t new regulations, the market interpreted them as signals of crackdown, causing investors to panic and sell off.

Another important background factor was that the previous bull market was just too crazy. Bitcoin surged from $30,000 at the start of the year to $64,000 in April—doubling in value. Ethereum and Litecoin also saw huge gains. Even more outrageous were the smaller coins, like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, which went from fractions of a cent to several dollars, with gains reaching thousands of times. These surges had no fundamental support; they were entirely driven by social media hype and speculative chasing. The bigger the bubble, the more explosive the burst.

I can still vividly recall the scene of the 519 event. Starting from the early morning of the 19th, the market entered a free fall. Bitcoin plummeted from $43,000 on the evening of the 18th to $30,000 by the morning of the 19th—a 30% drop. Ethereum fared even worse, falling from $3,300 to $1,900—a 42% decline. Other coins also dropped over 30%, some even over 50%. Many exchanges experienced lag and crashes; investors had no time to stop losses, only watching their assets shrink before their eyes.

Market panic indices soared to their highest levels since 2021, while greed indices plummeted to the lowest. The shift from greed to fear happened in an instant. The sell orders on that day were so numerous that trading systems couldn’t handle them, reaching a liquidity crisis peak. Many people only then realized how fragile the crypto market really is.

However, by the afternoon of the 19th, the market started to rebound. Some institutions and veteran traders began to buy the dip, with Bitcoin bouncing back to $40,000 and Ethereum to $2,800. Over the following days, the market gradually stabilized and entered a correction phase.

Looking back now, the collapse during the 519 event truly shook the entire industry. It made many realize the risks of the crypto market and brought more rationality. But honestly, today’s market is heavily controlled by Wall Street, making such wild fluctuations rare to see. The kind of black swan event like 519 is probably very unlikely to happen again.