Bitcoin hits 12-week low as dollar rallies on interest-rate outlook, liquidations top $1.6 billion

BREAKING: Bitcoin hits a 12-week low as the dollar rallies on the interest-rate outlook, with total crypto liquidations topping $1.6 billion. $BTC

One point six billion dollars in crypto bets just got vaporised.

Bitcoin is sitting at a twelve week low this morning, and the villain of the piece isn't crypto at all, it's the dollar. Traders have repriced the interest rate outlook, the greenback is rallying hard, and when the dollar gets strong, bitcoin tends to get humble. You can see the coin everyone's arguing about right here.

And the pressure is coming from the Federal Reserve's direction, because a hawkish rate picture makes cash pay and makes risk assets like crypto look expensive to hold. The leveraged crowd found that out the painful way, over a billion and a half in forced liquidations across the market, most of it longs who thought the bottom was already in.

Twelve weeks of gains, gone, and the dollar isn't done rallying yet. That's the hardest fact in crypto today.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.