Bitcoin’s $100,000 dream slips away as $939 million crypto wipeout pushes traders toward $78,000

BREAKING: Bitcoin tumbles to an intraday low of $79,730 before recovering near $82,000, as hot US inflation data triggers nearly $940 million in crypto liquidations.

Bitcoin just hit $79,730, and nearly a billion dollars in leverage went with it.

It's clawed back to around $82,000, but the damage is done. Over 176,000 traders got liquidated, $939 million in total, and the single biggest casualty was a $12 million bitcoin position on Binance. The trigger was Thursday's inflation data. US producer prices jumped 1.3 percent in September, the hottest monthly print since March 2022, and the annual rate is now 6.3 percent. Core came in at more than double what economists expected.

That puts the Federal Reserve right back in the frame. Futures briefly priced a near coin flip on an October hike, then cooled below thirty percent, but strategists like Sygnum's Can-Luca Köymen say these numbers strengthen the case for more tightening. Meanwhile the ten year yield actually fell, because money is fleeing the tech selloff for safety.

A week ago people were talking about $100,000. Tonight the chart watchers are talking about $78,000, and the Fed meets in twelve days.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.