Early in the morning, many people asked whether BTC is about to crash, and the screenshots indeed showed it dropping below 24K. Seeing this, I have to be honest: there are quite a few tricks behind this market movement.

First, the conclusion: BTC has not truly broken below the 24K support level. Those viral screenshots come from obscure trading pairs like BTCUSD1. How poor is the liquidity of these pairs? For example, it's like buying Moutai at a small-town grocery store—one single transaction can clear out the entire stock, and the price tags have to be reattached.

Having been in this circle for over 8 years, I’ve noticed that many newcomers love to fall into this trap. Distinguishing real from fake market movements is actually quite simple; it mainly depends on three aspects.

**First, obscure trading pairs inherently cannot reflect the true market situation.** The order books for these pairs are almost non-existent; a single large order can create a shocking candlestick. If someone places a market order, you’ll see a long lower shadow that’s quite frightening. But from another perspective, in a market with high liquidity, this is not an issue at all. Comparing a small pond to the ocean: throwing a stone into a small pond causes splashes, but in the ocean, it’s just a tiny wave. The volatility of BTCUSD1 follows this principle.

**Second, participation on mainstream trading platforms is the key to price discovery.** The real price of BTC is determined by the trading volume across major exchanges. Even if a niche trading pair shows unusual activity, if the big platforms don’t follow suit, it’s just “playing by oneself” and has no impact on the overall market. It’s like a small vendor’s outrageous quote that doesn’t influence the official pricing of a supermarket.

By understanding these two points, next time you see such "crash" screenshots, you’ll know what’s really going on.