BTC Price Dips by 8% on Wednesday as $400M Liquidated in Two Hours

TL;DR

• BTC lost more than 8% of its value on Wednesday, resulting in over $400 million liquidated within two hours.

• The broader crypto market suffered heavy losses following Matrixport’s report.

BTC Price Slides on Possible Bitcoin ETF Rejection

Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency by market cap, saw its price dip by more than 8% within an hour on Wednesday. The price crash came following a report by Matrixport that the spot Bitcoin ETF proposals could be rejected by the US SEC.

BTC has been gaining momentum in recent weeks thanks to the optimism of possible approval of at least one Bitcoin ETF application. However, crypto investment services provider Matrixport, believes that the SEC will reject all applications to list a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) this month. The company said,

"The current five-person voting Commissioners leadership critical for the ETF approval of the SEC is dominated by Democrats. SEC Chair Gensler is not embracing crypto in the U.S., and it might even be a very long shot to expect that he would vote to approve bitcoin spot ETFs."

Matrixport added that,

"An ETF would certainly enable crypto overall to take off, and based on Gensler’s comments in December 2023, he still sees this industry in need of more stringent compliance," Matrixport continued. "From a political perspective, there is no reason to approve a bitcoin spot ETF that would legitimize Bitcoin as an alternative store of value."

The report immediately saw Bitcoin’s price dump from above $45k to temporarily trade at $40,800 per coin, its lowest level in more than a week. However, BTC is now recovering and is currently trading above $43k per coin.

As usual with the crypto market, altcoins sustained heavy losses following Bitcoin’s dump. ETH, AVAX, SOL, ADA, XRP, MATIC, and DOGE all sustained heavy losses on Wednesday. However, they are currently recovering and could trade higher in the near term.

The total crypto market cap has also dropped below the $1.7 trillion mark as it currently stands at $1.65 trillion, down by 5% in the last 24 hours.