Bitcoin Dumps to $72,700 as $570M of Long Bets Get Liquidated

The relief rally didn't last an hour. Bitcoin was sitting near $74,400 before the US CPI print, dipped almost $1,000 the moment a hotter-than-expected monthly increase landed, clawed back to $74,800, then gave it all up in minutes. The slide took BTC to $72,700, its weakest price since the August breakout started, according to CryptoPotato.

That's the third leg of a rough stretch. Bitcoin fell from above $81,000 to below $76,000 last Thursday, then bled to a $73,600 local low on Monday before Tuesday's plunge erased the rebound entirely.

Altcoins took the worst of it, as usual. Ethereum dropped more than 5% to $2,010, parked just above the $2,000 line. XRP slid a similar amount to below $1.05, Solana lost 5% to $82, and Zcash got hammered for nearly 13%, landing at $1,030.

CoinGlass data shows the damage in the derivatives market. Roughly $580 million in positions were liquidated in just four hours, $484 million of that from longs. Stretch the window to 24 hours and it's close to $700 million wrecked, with longs accounting for $570 million.

Ethereum traders bled the most: $252 million in liquidations, ahead of Bitcoin's roughly $200 million. More than 115,000 traders were liquidated, and the single biggest casualty was a position worth over $31 million on HTX.