Crypto market sell-off triggers near $1 billion in liquidations as Bitcoin slides below $81,000
Cryptocurrency markets suffered heavy losses on Thursday as Bitcoin dropped below $81,000 and Ether slid toward $2,350, wiping out nearly $1 billion in leveraged trading positions.
A sharp crypto downturn pushed Bitcoin below $81,000 and touched intraday lows near $80,500 on Thursday, while Ether tumbled roughly 5% to 6% toward $2,350. The rapid slide caused cascading liquidations across leveraged derivatives, wiping out between $876 million and over $1 billion in positions over a 24-hour period, with long bets accounting for more than 90% of the forced closures. CoinGlass figures reported by Unchained showed overall 24-hour liquidations reached $951.4 million, including $876.3 million in longs.[1][2][4][6][10]
Ether absorbed a disproportionate share of the sell-off. On Binance, ETH long liquidations exceeded $106 million in a single hour, marking the platform's largest hourly ETH long liquidation event in nearly six months, according to CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost. Across the broader market, CoinDesk reported that Ether accounted for nearly 60% of liquidations between the two largest digital assets, falling roughly twice as fast as Bitcoin as leverage unraveled.[3][5][6][12]
The slump followed macroeconomic pressure from a hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer price index report released Wednesday. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported headline consumer prices rose 0.6% from August and 3.7% year-over-year, beating forecasts, while core inflation reached 2.6%. The report heightened concerns of another Federal Reserve interest rate hike ahead of the central bank's late October policy meeting.[4][8][10][11]
Digital assets also mirrored broad risk-off sentiment across Asian equities. South Korea's Kospi plunged roughly 7.6% to 8% and briefly triggered a 20-minute trading halt via circuit breaker, while Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped nearly 5%. Dominick John, an analyst at Zeus Research, told The Block that the simultaneous declines represented a wider pullback from risk as U.S. tech weakness spilled over into global markets.[4][7][9]
Key facts
- Bitcoin dropped below $81,000 on Thursday, touching intraday lows near $80,500.
- Total 24-hour crypto liquidations approached $1 billion, with long positions accounting for over 90% of forced liquidations.
- Over $106 million in ETH long positions were liquidated on Binance in a single hour, the exchange's largest hourly ETH liquidation total in nearly six months.
- U.S. September headline inflation climbed 3.7% year-over-year against 3.6% expectations, with core inflation accelerating to 2.6%.
- South Korea's Kospi tumbled about 7.6% to 8%, triggering a 20-minute circuit-breaker trading halt, while Japan's Nikkei 225 fell approximately 4.9%.
Sources · 11 sources
- CO
CoinGecko@coingeckoPost on X ·
JUST IN: Bitcoin falls below $81,000. https://t.co/ofgRp9Mg41
Open source - WG
Watcher.Guru@WatcherGuruPost on X ·
JUST IN: Bitcoin falls under $81,000 and $ETH falls under $2,400. $350,000,000 worth of crypto longs liquidated in the past 10 minutes. https://t.co/D0GchqbGQQ
Open source - BS
BSCN@BSCNewsPost on X ·
Ethereum Records Its Biggest Binance Liquidation Event in Six Months More than $106 million in Ethereum $ETH long positions were liquidated on Binance (@binance) within one hour. CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost linked the selloff to hotter than expected US inflation. Core CPI recently accelerated to 2.6% year over year. ETH dropped from around $2,500 to $2,350 following the report.
Open source - UN
UnchainedArticle ·
Bitcoin Sinks to $80,500 After a Rising U.S. Inflation Print and a Kospi Circuit Breaker Bitcoin fell below $81,000 during Asian trading on Thursday, touching about $80,500 around 06:00 UTC before steadying near $81,200, CoinGecko data show . Ether traded near $2,370, down about 5% over 24 hours. The drop extended a selloff that began Wednesday, when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices climbed 0.6% from August to September and 3.7% from a year earlier. Gasoline drove the jump. The agency said the gasoline index climbed 9.1% in the month, “accounting for over half of the monthly all items increase.” Core inflation, which strips out food and energy, rose 0.3% for a second straight month and reached 2.6% on an annual basis, up from 2.4% in August, according to the release. Get Unchained’s crypto news in your inbox with the free Unchained Daily newsletter . Asian Stocks and Crypto Leverage South Korea’s Kospi closed about 7.6% lower on Thursday at 5,554.22, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended down roughly 4.9% , Yahoo Finance index data show . The Kospi had fallen more than 9% earlier in the session, setting off a circuit breaker that halted trading for 20 minutes at 12:38 p.m. local time. Dominick John, an analyst at Zeus Research, told The Block the declines in crypto and Asian stocks looked like part of a wider pullback from risk, “with weakness in U.S. tech stocks spilling into both markets rather than one directly causing the other.” Leveraged traders took the brunt of it. Liquidations across crypto totaled $951.4 million over 24 hours, with $876.3 million of that coming from long positions, according to CoinGlass figures reported early Thursday . A narrower CoinGlass reading taken during Asian morning hours put bitcoin and ether futures liquidations at about $483 million , with ether accounting for $286 million and bitcoin for $197 million. Fed Meeting Ahead The inflation data lands two weeks before the Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting, scheduled for Oct. 27-28 . At its previous meeting, the central bank raised its benchmark rate by a quarter point to a target range of 3.75% to 4% on Sept. 16, its first increase in more than three years. Related Listen: Bits + Bips: Is Bitcoin’s Rally a Debasement Trade or a Short Squeeze? The post Bitcoin Sinks to $80,500 After a Rising U.S. Inflation Print and a Kospi Circuit Breaker appeared first on Unchained .
Open source - WB
Wu Blockchain@WuBlockchainPost on X ·
Binance ETH Long Liquidations Top $106 Million in One Hour, Highest in Six Months According to CryptoQuant analyst @Darkfost_Coc , hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation triggered more than $106 million in ETH long liquidations on Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, within one hour — the largest hourly liquidation of ETH longs on the platform in nearly six months. Darkfost noted that crypto futures trading volume is now roughly nine times spot volume, making highly leveraged markets more vulnerable to macroeconomic shocks. He added that expectations of another Federal Reserve rate hike have risen from 17% to nearly 30% in one week, intensifying pressure on derivatives markets.
Open source - CO
CoindeskArticle ·
Nearly $1 billion in crypto bets liquidated as bitcoin, ether and XRP slide Ether accounted for nearly 60% of the forced closures across the two largest cryptocurrencies, falling roughly twice as much as bitcoin.
Open source - TB
The BlockArticle ·
Bitcoin drops below $81,000 as risk-off sentiment weighs on Asian equities Asian equities tumbled on Thursday, with South Korea's Kospi losing 8% and Japan's Nikkei 225 declining 5% during morning trading.
Open source - DE
DecryptArticle ·
Bitcoin Tests $81,000 as Rate Hike Fears Linger After Hot Inflation Data Odds of an October Fed hike have climbed to 29% from 18% a week ago, and analysts see Bitcoin range-bound until the picture clears.
Open source - TB
The Block@TheBlockCoPost on X ·
THE BLOCK: Bitcoin bitcoin:native fell 3% to $80,854, while ether ethereum:native dropped 6% to $2,358. Asian equities also slid on Thursday, with Kospi down 7.6% and Nikkei 225 down 4.8% in morning sessions. https://t.co/Jzturv5IAn
Open source - CO
CoinMarketCap@CoinMarketCapPost on X ·
💥 CoinMarketCap | Liquidations 💥 $BTC lost $2,031 in 24 hours. $1.01B got wiped with it. Longs take 93%. 🔹 Longs lost $939.1M and shorts lost $78.21M 🔹 Longs lost $12 for every $1 lost by shorts 🔹 US inflation hit 3.7%, above the 3.6% forecast Track liquidations on CoinMarketCap 👇 https://t.co/rSbpuQLkwz
Open source - CO
CoindeskArticle ·
Bitcoin wilts as Fed rate uncertainty weighs. Kospi plunges 8% Bets on an October Fed rate hike briefly spiked to nearly 50% after Wednesday’s inflation report, but have since cooled.
Open source - SN
Saanjana Nikita@Saanjana_NikitaPost on X ·
$483M in crypto futures got liquidated in 24 hours. but look at where it hit. ETH took $286M of it, BTC only $197M that's weird, because the ETH futures market is way smaller, around $30B in open interest vs $52B for BTC so the smaller market took the bigger hit. to me that means ETH traders were running a lot more leverage, and when price dropped 6% they were the first to get flushed and remember, nobody chooses to sell in a liquidation. the exchange does it for you. those forced sells push price lower, which sets off the next wave that's how a 3% drop in BTC turns into 6% on ETH and 13% on ZEC in the same morning leverage feels fine when things are calm. it's the first thing to break when the Fed makes everyone nervous i'm watching ETH funding rates from here. if they stay high after this, the pain probably isn't over
Open source