Bitcoin slides toward $80,000 as liquidations top $1 billion

What happened

CryptoSlate reported an intraday low near $80,000, with bitcoin changing hands around $80,744 when its report was published. Estimates of the daily fall depended on timing: CryptoSlate put it at 3% over 24 hours, while CoinDesk said 4%. CoinDesk added that bitcoin was more than 8% below the level close to $87,000 it had almost reached four days earlier.

Other large coins fell harder. CoinDesk said ether and XRP lost about 6% over the day and solana about 9%, with all of them down by double digits over the week. In CryptoSlate's snapshot, ether had slipped below $2,500 and XRP stood at $1.35.

Money also left spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which let investors hold bitcoin exposure through a regular brokerage account. According to Decrypt's ETF tracker, investors pulled $484.9 million from these funds on Wednesday, the largest one-day outflow since June 25. BlackRock's IBIT accounted for $207.7 million and Fidelity's FBTC for $105.1 million. Decrypt noted that the funds still hold $57.8 billion in cumulative net inflows.

Why leverage made the drop sharper

Much of the speed came from leverage, meaning trades made with borrowed money. When the price moves against a leveraged position and the trader's collateral runs short, the exchange closes the position automatically. This is called a liquidation, and each forced sale can push prices lower and set off the next one.

Citing CoinGlass data, CryptoSlate counted $1.16 billion in liquidations over 24 hours. Bets on rising prices, known as longs, made up $1 billion of that, against $108 million in bets on falling prices. In all, 166,769 traders were liquidated. Ether positions took the largest hit at roughly $324 million, compared with $240 million for bitcoin.

Newer buyers also looked nervous. CryptoQuant data cited by CryptoSlate showed that short-term holders moved over 50,000 BTC onto exchanges at the busiest point of the day, and more than 29,500 BTC of that was moved at a loss. Coins sent to an exchange are often sold soon after, though not always.

The bigger backdrop: oil, yields and the Fed

Decrypt argued that the main pressure came from outside crypto. It reported that the 30-year US Treasury yield rose to about 5.7%, its highest since 2002, while Brent crude oil settled near $100 a barrel. Bitcoin Magazine linked the rise in oil to fresh tanker attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.

The chain of cause and effect is simple to follow. Costly oil pushes up inflation, and higher inflation makes a central bank more willing to raise interest rates. When safe assets such as government bonds pay more, some investors move money away from assets that pay no interest at all, including bitcoin.

According to Decrypt, the Fed lifted rates in September, its first increase since 2023, and minutes from its latest meeting show most officials expect another increase before the year ends. In a Thursday speech covered by Bitcoin Magazine, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said further rate increases are probably needed to bring inflation down, while leaving some room on the pace.

What to watch next

Markets are less convinced than Fed officials. Decrypt cited CME FedWatch odds of 19.4% for an October hike, and 17% on the prediction market Myriad. The Fed's next meetings are on Oct. 27-28 and Dec. 8-9.

On the charts, Glassnode had flagged a large block of waiting buy orders on Binance, sitting from $81,000 to $81,250, CryptoSlate reported, and bitcoin has already traded below that zone. Glassnode also pointed to another cluster of possible liquidation levels near $75,000. Such levels are not a floor: orders can be cancelled, and heavy selling can push straight through them.

CoinDesk also noted that Oct. 10 marks one year since the 2025 flash crash, when bitcoin tumbled from about $122,000 to $105,000, much of it within minutes.

What this means for beginners

Days like this show how borrowed money magnifies moves in both directions. Most of the traders who were liquidated had used leverage to bet on higher prices. Someone who simply owns their coins outright is not forced out by a falling price, although the value of those coins still drops.

Bitcoin Magazine noted that bitcoin still trades more than 30% under its all-time high of $126,080. Prices can keep falling, and nobody knows where this pullback ends. Deciding in advance how much you can afford to lose, and avoiding leverage while you learn, are the simplest protections.