Bitcoin (BTC) saw a "flippening" during its price crash to $3,700 terminal month — something that could reveal a new uncomfortable truth about exchanges.

In its March Exchange Review released this week, monitoring resources CryptoCompare highlighted liquidity as a key metric which changed during last month's farthermost volatility.

CryptoCompare: Bitfinex hit twoscore% of exchange book

On March 12, every bit Bitcoin prices collapsed in a matter of hours, it was notably one platform in particular which provided more volume, and hence liquidity, for traders.

"Despite Binance and OKEx trading the almost volume across all markets in broad terms, during the exact moment of the BTC crash (approx. 10:thirty am GMT) which began on the twelfth, it was Bitfinex that represented the majority of Summit-Tier exchange trading volume (across BTC/USD and BTC/USDT markets)," the review states.

"This was followed by Coinbase, OKEx and Bitstamp who likewise maintained loftier volumes during this time."

Bitcoin exchange volume for March 12, 2022. Source: CryptoCompare

Bitcoin exchange volume for March 12, 2022. Source: CryptoCompare

According to CryptoCompare, the offset hr of the precipitous crash saw Bitfinex provide the nearly volume.

Amid top-tier exchanges excluding Coinbase, OKEx and Bitstamp, "betwixt 10:40 am and eleven am, information technology represented 40% of volume on average amongst these exchanges," the report continued.

During the cursory period, Bitfinex was handling upwards to $11.viii million worth of trades per minute.

Bitcoin whale praises platform

Reacting to the findings, online commentators were quick to point out that more than "mainstream" exchanges with ubiquitous branding were unable to compete with the more modest Bitfinex in terms of liquidity.

Amidst them was the Twitter user J0e007, a notorious high-volume Bitcoin trader who regularly tops the list of highest-grossing Bitfinex accounts.

"When shit hits the fan, yous know where y'all can get existent liquidity," he wrote in a post on Saturday.

"Information technology's definitely not on those faketown exchanges with such cracking marketing headed past popular figureheads."

CryptoCompare also noted that March 13 saw the highest volumes in history on cryptocurrency markets, with $75.ix billion in a unmarried day.

Derivatives giant BitMEX continues to field criticism over its potential role in the crash, despite executives denying that the platform's technical problems were to blame.

On Sat, swain loftier-volume trader Hsaka warned of unpredictable volatility on BitMEX'due south futures markets, after a fasten of $450 during trading, which lasted just one minute.