Hot October CPI Drags Crypto Market Cap Below $2.5T

US consumer prices rose 0.4% in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday, topping the 0.3% forecast even as the pace cooled from 0.6% in September. Within hours, crypto's total market value slid to about $2.46 trillion, CoinMarketCap data showed.

Bitcoin fell below $74,000 and sat near $73,734 by late morning UTC, down 1.19% over 24 hours. The damage ran deeper in altcoins: Ether dropped 2.28% to $2,066, XRP lost 2.82% to $1.06, and Solana slid 2.92% to about $84.09 — the steepest decline of the four.

Leverage got torched. Coinglass data showed about $200 million in positions were liquidated in the hour after the report, part of roughly $360 million wiped out across the market over the preceding 24 hours — $282 million of that in bullish bets.

Sentiment flipped fast. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index had ticked up to 32, up from 29, in the hours before the release, then sank back to 26 by late morning UTC, still in Fear territory. The BLS also omitted a year-over-year inflation rate: last year's federal government shutdown left the agency without comparable October 2025 data.

Rate traders were already leaning hawkish. Polymarket and Kalshi had priced a December Federal Reserve increase at roughly 87% and 90% respectively, with a 25-basis-point move broadly expected after the Fed held rates at 3.75% to 4% in October. A hotter inflation print leaves the Fed less room to pause.