Something called Matrixport dumped the crypto market midweek ...

Whoa, Bitcoin flash crash on Thursday. ETF still likely? Bloomberg’s experts think so. Is crypto’s moon mission still on? And what/who the hell is Matrixport anyway? 

We’re only a handful of days into 2024 and Bitcoin and crypto is already showing more volatility than a Prime-chugging tween with laggy WiFi.

Some would say this is a good thing and the return of the kind of froth that has typified crypto bull markets of yore, with monster gains followed by face-planting dumps a regularity on the ladder to the cycle top.

It seems like just a day ago that Bitcoin was flying, surging past US$45k, flipping the bird at every commodity and several securities in its wake.

And that’s because it was. So, what happened to cause this, then?

Matrixport did. Who, or what is Matrixport? And what did it do or say? Good questions.

It’s known as a crypto-financial service platform, and had actually been, on the whole, pretty optimistic about the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF in January.

Until that is, a report surfaced midweek that indicated a sharp shift in its sentiment, speculating that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may be about to reject all current BTC ETF proposals.

Matrix on Target projects a January rejection for Bitcoin Spot ETFs by the SEC, cautioning traders to hedge long exposure. With #SEC Chair Gensler’s skepticism towards #crypto, a potential -20% #Bitcoin price drop is anticipated upon #ETF denial, though a positive end-of-2024… pic.twitter.com/IgaMhBJtiP

— Matrixport (@realMatrixport) January 3, 2024

Larry, was this you?

Tinfoil hat time. Is BlackRock involved? That’d be tasty, wouldn’t it? The leading spot Bitcoin ETF candidate has been called out by a number of rando posters on Twitter/X for pulling the strings on the Matrixport thought piece to supposedly tank the price ahead of its possible ETF approval by a reluctant SEC.

We’re yet to see a single bit of evidence posted by anyone to back up the speculation, though.

LOL

Blackrock put out a fake Matrixport report to get a lower seeding price?

Classic Larry ????

— Mike Alfred (@mikealfred) January 3, 2024

“Blackrock needs a better entry. You still got that contact at Matrixport?” pic.twitter.com/lquRjDv47l

— Sal ???? (@Salmander0) January 3, 2024

Still, some mild digging of our own later and, well, look… there’s a vague degree of separation in there somewhere.

Matrixport is a spin-off company of Bitmain, a Chinese founded Bitcoin mining-sector company, of which Singaporean investment giant Temasek Holdings is a major backer.

In turn, Temasek is a huge investor into BlackRock itself, buying a 3.9% stake in BLK, worth US$3.9 billion, back in 2020. As of November 2023, Temasek was still one of the top five institutional investors into BlackRock, with a 3.4% stake in the US$9.42 trillion financial giant.

We know, we know. It’s as tenuous as an SEC lawsuit, but hey, it’s fodder for the moon bois (and girls) – not that they need it.

Bloomberg’s ETF pundits still believe

Meanwhile, the crypto industry has been holding on to the words of Bloomberg ETF experts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart for some time now.

And that’s because the two analysts have been covering ETFs of all kinds day in day out for years, and they are extraordinarily bullish on a raft of spot BTC ETFs finally making it over the line in the first half of this year.

And even as soon as… Christ, maybe even next week – January 10, which is the date the Gary Gensler-run agency is slated to approve, delay or deny the majority of the Bitcoin ETF filings from BlackRock, VanEck, Fidelity among others.

At this point saying SEC rejecting it isn’t just going against @JSeyff and I like it was in the early days, now you basically saying multiple mainstream news reporters w multiple sources on inside of this also have it wrong too. Not saying it’s imposs (again we still ‘only’ at…

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) January 3, 2024

Looks like the Matrix Report took both the blue pill and the red pill.. https://t.co/1VpA7t2vq6

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) January 3, 2024

No, Jim, no. Flip back immediately

Finally, we can’t finish off without a mention of this bloke – hapless CNBC pundit Jim Cramer, who recently flipped somewhat bullish on Bitcoin. Please, just stick to the recent script and keep hating crypto, would ya? Thanks, Jim…

Yesterday Jim Cramer said he was bullish on Bitcoin at $45,675

Today price nuked to $40,800pic.twitter.com/kq6HC8LAwv

— borovik.eth (@3orovik) January 3, 2024

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