More likely is the fact that the goldbugs overextended their hands and fueled a speculative bubble. That, and the money supply is tightening, at least for now.
This is really a pure paper plunge. Sovereign buying of physical gold is way up YOY. Course, sovereign buyers (Russia and China) will gladly stand aside and let the U.S. and G.B. crash the price. Buy the real stuff a lot cheaper if they can. Get a lot more gold for your USD fiat. The financial crisis has proved once again that paper burns.
The money supply isn't really tightening. Just the Fed talking about thinking about doing it. Japan is committed to printing yen, U.S. is still printing 85B/mo (that's almost $1T/yr), Euro will need to print as well. A contraction in the money supply would crash the U.S. and world economies. Who knows, maybe that's in the plan. Happened in the 30's till WW II was launched.
Gold could always go lower and could stay down for a long time. OTOH, it may rebound from these levels. Nobody knows except the banksters and their unlimited paper. If you were thinking about buying though, this is a better time than in a long time. "Blood in the streets" and all that.
JMO, this is not investment advice, DYODD.