On the 5th of January 2022, a journalist from the Democracy Daily broke a story about the DC's stock exchange—the Onyx—which had a market cap of US$10,000. It was asking for donations from citizens and government officials because it was having liquidity issues.

When the headlines reached investors, they freaked out and started panic-selling on the stock exchange. Sell orders for company stocks and cryptocurrencies soon flooded the market as traders tried to desperately dump everything they had.