Bitcoin Price Falls Along With Spot ETF Projection Withdrawn

JAKARTA - The original value of the Bitcoin (BTC) cryptocurrency has fallen to 42,989 US dollars, experiencing a sudden, massive, and sharp outflow on its 15th anniversary of its 'Genesis', as well as removing most of the profits in the last 30 days.

Bitcoin fell below $42,000 on January 3, losing a value of at least $3.000 within two hours, according to data from CoinGecko. At CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin fell to USD 40.700 from an intraday high of USD 45.600 recorded at the time of writing this news.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading for $42,608, down nearly 6% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. The cryptocurrency has also fallen 1.5% in the last 14 days while it has barely seen an increase in the last 30 days.

The sharp decline in BTC prices comes as digital financial services platform Matrixport calls back its latest prediction that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has the potential to approve the first direct Bitcoin (ETF) trading fund exchange in January 2024.

Matrixport announced on X (formerly Twitter) on January 1 with the belief that Bitcoin will soar to $50,000, driven by factors such as "the immediate approval of Bitcoin ETF spot." The company also stated that a potential approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF could be announced even before the expectations of most traders for approval on January 8.9, or 10.

Just one day after issuing predictions about a possible approval in 2024, Matrixport made changes in its forecast on January 2, stating that the SEC would reject all Bitcoin spot ETFs in January and that a Bitcoin spot ETF approval would not have occurred before the second quarter of this year.

Community reactions to Matrixport's controversial predictions are very fast, with many accusing the company of manipulating Bitcoin prices.

Bitcoin investor Juli Milne realized that Matrixport was founded by Jihan Wu, a billionaire crypto entrepreneur from China and co-founder of crypto mining company Bitmain. Industry analyst James Van Straten noted that Wu is a major supporter of Bitcoin Cash, a Bitcoin hard fork created in 2017.

"If anyone believes in anything published by Matrixport, I have a bridge to sell to you," the analyst wrote.

Some of the main observers of the Bitcoin spot ETF also reacted to this news. "We didn't hear anything in addition to the approval, but I wanted to give the person an advantage, so I asked if he had a source or just speculated," wrote Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, at X.

"To be clear, not saying absolute rejection is impossible," added Balchunas. "But we didn't hear anything that showed it."