Bitcoin (BTC) Marketcap Sank $90bn in 5-Hours Amid ETF Rejection Rumors -Analysts Weigh-in 

News Insights:

• Bitcoin (BTC) lost over $90 billion in market capitalization as its price tumbled from $45,359 to $41,800 within a frenetic 5-hours on Wednesday, Jan 3, 2024.
• A research report published by US-based Asset Management firm Matrixport highlighted a bearish scenario involving the SEC postponing the ETF approval to Q2 2024. 
• The BTC price decline was further accelerated by $165 million LONG Liquidations in the derivatives markets. 

Bitcoin (BTC) price plunged by 7% Wednesday morning in the U.S. trading hours, sinking as low as $41,804.95 before making a mild recovery. At the time of writing, BTC is now trading for $43,005.28 according to CoinMarketcap. 

Investors Panicked at Rumors SEC Could Reject Spot ETF Applications 

Social media reports highlight the BTC price tumble may have been triggered by widespread market rumors that the SEC could reject or postpone the much-anticipated Spot Bitcoin ETF approval.  

The rumor was highlighted in a research report published by US-based Asset Management firm Matrixport. The report, written by Matrixport Head of Research Markus Thielen, was published under a tepid headline, “Why the SEC will REJECT Bitcoin Spot ETFs again.” 

In the report, the team highlighted a bearish scenario involving the SEC postponing the ETF approval to Q2 2024. 

While we have seen frequent meetings between the ETF applicants and staff from the SEC, which resulted in the applicants refiling their applications, we believe all applications fall short of a critical requirement that must be met before the SEC approves,” the company wrote in its report. This might be fulfilled by Q2 2024, but we expect the SEC to reject all proposals in January.” -Matrixport Reasearch.

The bearish report went out around 5 a.m. Eastern Time. The impetus generated from the Bitcoin ETF dismissal rumors appears to have spooked the BTC holders into a panic sell-off frenzy. Within hours, BTC price tumbled 7%, to drop below the $42,000 area for the first time since Dec 18. 

The panic sale appears to have come at a bad time for Bitcoin derivative traders. Many invests were trading LONG. Additionally, they were paying record Funding fees to keep their leveraged positions, in anticipation the the SEC will deliver an approval verdict this week. 

Bullish BTC Traders Suffered over $165 Million Worth of LONG Liquidations

The Liqudation data heat-map from Coinglass, a prominent derivative data tracker shows that the Bitcoin price tumbled triggered significant losses across the crypto markets. 

More than $686 million worth of trades have been liquidated across crypto futures markets as of 5pm Eastern Time on Wednesday. 

Notably, as depicted above, BTC LONG traders took the lion’s share of the heat, with $165.94 million bullish contracts liquidated. This works out to about 24% off all trades liquidated across the crypto derivatives markets within the daily timeframe. 

However, other prominent market analysts have weighed in, stating that the liquidations had exaggerated the bearish impact of the Bitcoin Spot ETF dismissal rumours. At press time, BTC price has bounced back above the $43,000 territory as the bulls look shake off the market FUD and regain momentum.