Most rational investors and traders outside CME did the same thing. People blamed the CME for dragging the price down but it was just the bubble that popped. It also happened before when there weren't even futures.

The interesting part however is the timing. Bitcoin has always been an extremely poor performer in the first couple of months of each year (look up the charts and you'll see what I mean), so they may have launched intentionally in December of 2017.

If you also add that people bought the rumor and would very likely sell the news, then you know that the odds of a correction to happen were extremely high. Poor people who bought the $20k peak.