Bitcoin Breaks Below $70,000 as Liquidations Sweep Through Leveraged Longs

Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $70,000 late Thursday in the U.S. and kept sliding past midnight, touching $67,555 on Coinbase as forced selling swept through leveraged crypto positions.
The first trade under $70,000 on Coinbase’s BTC-USD market came in the hour after 9 p.m. ET Thursday (02:00 UTC Friday), and the following hour closed below that level, according to Coinbase hourly price data. The low came in the hour starting at midnight ET. At 3:18 a.m. ET, bitcoin traded at $68,624, down 6.7% over 24 hours and 9.4% over seven days, per CoinGecko data. That is about 15% below the roughly $80,760 it traded at on the afternoon of Oct. 29.
Other major tokens also fell. Ether (ETH) dropped 5.7% in 24 hours to $1,931 and is down 13.1% on the week. Solana (SOL) lost 3.7% to $79.76, dogecoin (DOGE) about 4% and XRP 1.5%.

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Longs Take the Hit
About $1.65 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated in the 24 hours to roughly 3:10 a.m. ET, CoinGlass data showed, and 88.9% of that came from traders betting on higher prices. $1.07 billion of the total hit in the last 12 hours of that window, which covers the U.S. evening and the break below $70,000.
Bitcoin positions made up $918.66 million of the 24-hour total and ether $287.68 million. One bitcoin long on the decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid accounted for $31.09 million on its own.
Rates, Inflation and the AI Trade
James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, told Unchained that bitcoin is being hit as investors rethink their AI and tech bets, with hotter inflation and the prospect of more Fed rate increases adding to the strain. “Bitcoin does not need a direct economic connection to AI to suffer when investors reduce risk across their portfolios,” he said, noting that fund withdrawals and leverage were amplifying the pressure.
Two weeks earlier, with bitcoin near $80,000, Galaxy head of firm-wide research Alex Thorn said on Unchained that bitcoin’s holder base had become less sensitive to AI jitters. “People ask why Bitcoin’s been so resilient around 80 while everybody has a wall of worry meltdown about the AI trade the last month,” he said, arguing that “none of the people freaking out about AI own Bitcoin.”
The rate backdrop has tightened. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4% in October and core CPI, which excludes food and energy, 0.3%, data that knocked bitcoin back below $74,000 on Tuesday. The Fed held its target range at 3.75% to 4% on Oct. 28, with two officials dissenting in favor of a hike, after raising rates in September. The 10-year Treasury yield reached 5.10% on Thursday, up from 4.88% on Monday.
What Investors Are Watching
CoinShares’ base case has been a $70,000-to-$90,000 band for bitcoin into 2027. “The move below US$70,000 puts the lower end of that view under pressure, and we should not assume it represents a hard floor,” Butterfill told Unchained. He said a lasting move above $90,000 would likely need expectations of easier monetary policy, renewed buying by large holders, or both.
Butterfill is watching inflation, the Fed’s expected path, flows into exchange-traded products (ETPs), and whether buying comes from the spot market or new leverage. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows of $299.9 million on Wednesday, Nov. 11, and $1.88 billion in November through that day, according to SoSoValue data. “A short squeeze can lift prices quickly, but a durable recovery needs buyers willing to commit fresh capital,” he said. He also flagged oil and Iran as risks to the inflation outlook. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude has fallen, from $107.56 a barrel on Oct. 30 to $89.62 on Nov. 10, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
October producer price data is due at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday. Nvidia, whose CEO Jensen Huang resigned effective immediately on Thursday, reports quarterly results on Nov. 17. The Fed’s next rate decision is scheduled for Dec. 9, a day before November CPI.
Related Listen: How the 50-Week Moving Average Signals Bitcoin’s Bear Market Is Over

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