Bitcoin fell about 10% three hours earlier today, but market data sheds some light on this unexpected change of direction.

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at just over $42,300 after seeing a price decrease of about 7.4% over the last 24 hours. Earlier today, the price quickly fell from about $45,500 to $40,800 — a loss of over 10% in under three hours.

CoinGlass data shows that Bitcoin has seen $2.7 million of one-hour-long liquidations, $116 million of 4-hour-long liquidations, and $129 million of 24-hour-long liquidations. Crypto investor Scott Melker suggested that this price downturn is a “leverage flush” that eliminated the overleveraged positions.

This is the “reason” for the dump.

I put reason in quotes, because this is really just a leverage flush.

Regardless, this is an OPINION with zero new information that flies in the face of everything shared by experts.

Are you guys that skittish? pic.twitter.com/inqMvPrb8r

— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) January 3, 2024

When a market has a significant amount of highly leveraged positions, a small downturn can result in the liquidation and forced sale of many assets. This forced sale then causes further price decreases that cause even more liquidations in a cycle that repeats until a “leverage flush” comes to fruition.

The investor also pointed to a report published by crypto financial services firm Matrixport as the trigger for the flush. The new report predicts that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will reject the Bitcoin ETF applications and follows the company’s suggestion that the opposite will happen. Still, according to Melker, this report is of little value.

Some market participants were less than impressed by Matrixport’s change of direction. Crypto influencer Stack Hodler vented on X, suggesting that this was a successful attempt at market manipulation:

Yesterday: “Bitcoin Price Set to Hit $50,000, Matrixport Points to ETF Approvals and Institutional Interest”

Today: Matrixport claims that the SEC will reject all Bitcoin spot ETFs in January.

Engineered dump to liquidate #Bitcoin longs before ETF approval?

Stack Hodler