The bitcoin price experienced a nearly $1,000 flash crash after reaching a new all-time high just below $7,900 in the wake of the cancellation of SegWit2x.

Bitcoin Price Flash Crashes After Reaching All-Time High

As CCN reported, Mike Belshe, chief executive of bitcoin wallet service BitGo and project lead for SegWit2x, announced today that the controversial Bitcoin protocol upgrade had been suspended indefinitely due to a lack of consensus and the near-certainty of a blockchain split following its activation.

Source: BitcoinWisdom

The bitcoin price surged in response to the announcement, rising to a new all-time high of $7,899 at 17:30 UTC on bitcoin exchange Bitfinex. However, soon after, the bitcoin price fell into decline, and at approximately 18:40 UTC it fell prey to a flash crash and plummeted to $6,977. This plunge constituted a $922 — or 12% — decline from the all-time high it had set just an hour prior.

Market Sorts Out SegWit2x

Bitcoin's rapid price swing indicates a potential conflict between the short- and long-term impacts of SegWit2x cancellation. The hard fork would have split Bitcoin into two competing blockchains, and the fight for supremacy would have been ugly. Bitcoin services expected to undergo serious disruptions, and there was a high probability that some users would lose funds due to replay attacks and other exploits.