It's based on a significant number of people who are large Patreon account holders closing their accounts (Sam Harris is the first one to spring to mind, I believe he had the 13th largest account by monthly donation), and also a number of people saying their income via Patreon has decreased significantly as a result of patrons leaving the platform.

Plus there seems to be a lot of disquiet about Patreon and people trying to set up competition for them (SubscribeStar, Dave Rubin/Jordan Peterson's project) which seems to be gaining a lot more attention than it would have otherwise - up to this point many people (myself included) were completely happy with Patreon.