Bitcoin Crashes Below $69,000 as $1.4 Billion Is Liquidated

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The slide has turned into a crash: Overnight into Friday, Bitcoin plunged below $70,000 and then below $69,000 within a few hours, briefly dipping under $68,000. On Friday morning, the largest cryptocurrency was trading at about $68,700 (about 61,700 euros), down almost 7 percent in 24 hours. Only on Thursday had Bitcoin slipped below $73,000, and now the August low of nearly $68,900 has given way as well. Ether has surrendered the $2,000 mark.

Prices at a Glance

The following table shows a selection of the largest crypto assets by market capitalization (excluding stablecoins), according to CoinGecko, as of Friday morning.

This time, Bitcoin itself took the hardest hit. The largest cryptocurrency lost more than 6.6 percent in 24 hours, with only Monero and BNB falling about as steeply, while Ether gave up almost 6 percent. Only LEO, the token of the crypto exchange Bitfinex, was slightly up. Over the week, Zcash leads the losers with a drop of more than 28 percent, followed by Bitcoin Cash at almost 22 percent and Monero at nearly 17 percent. The crypto market as a whole lost about 8 percent in a day, according to CoinGecko, and is now worth about $2.33 trillion (about 2.09 trillion euros). Bitcoin is now about 45 percent below its record high of about $126,000 in October 2025.

Liquidations Accelerate the Plunge

The drop below $70,000 set off a chain reaction in the futures market. Within 24 hours, positions worth more than $1.4 billion (about 1.26 billion euros) were forcibly closed, according to CoinGlass, about $1.26 billion of them bets on rising prices. More than 170,000 traders were affected, and the largest single liquidation, on Hyperliquid, was worth $31 million. About $740 million of the total came from Bitcoin and about $250 million from Ether.

A week full of bad news laid the groundwork. Since unexpectedly high U.S. inflation data on Tuesday, markets have been pricing in a Federal Reserve rate increase in December; the yield on 10-year Treasuries is above 5 percent, and the dollar is at its highest level in about 19 months. On Thursday came the resignation of Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, which weighed on A.I. stocks. Overnight, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards then claimed an attack on a U.S. radar installation in Bahrain, crypto.news reported; the United States and Bahrain had not confirmed it.

Money has been flowing out of U.S. Bitcoin E.T.F.s for days. On Wednesday, outflows totaled $299.8 million, according to Farside Investors, $269.7 million of that from BlackRock’s IBIT alone; over five trading days, they added up to about $1.44 billion. For Thursday, early and still incomplete figures show only a small outflow of about $48 million.

Sentiment: Extreme Fear

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index has fallen to 20 points, putting it in “extreme fear” territory for the first time since July, down from 28 the day before. Bitcoin’s share of the total crypto market capitalization is just under 59 percent, according to CoinGecko. The market is also thin: According to the data provider Talos, order book depth for Bitcoin was recently about a third below normal. In such conditions, relatively small sales are enough to move the price sharply, and leveraged positions are unwound faster.

Capitulation or Bottom?

The camps are divided. “Liquidity remains thin while leverage stays elevated,” Tanay Ved of Talos warned, according to Cointelegraph. According to Glassnode, the supply of stablecoins shrank by $14.2 billion in 30 days, the steepest drop since June 2022, leaving less fresh capital for a recovery. The average purchase price of short-term investors is about $75,600, so many of them are sitting on losses. Market watchers see the next support around $65,000, and Glassnode points to a zone between $62,000 and $66,000 where large amounts of Bitcoin were bought in the past.

On the other side are signs of a bottom forming. Glassnode is seeing purchases by wallets holding 100 to 10,000 Bitcoin, meaning larger investors. According to Bitfinex, easing E.T.F. outflows could be a first step toward a floor; in the past, after three or more days of inflows, Bitcoin rose a median 6.4 percent over the following 10 trading sessions. For any relief, Bitcoin would first have to reclaim the zone of $71,000 to $71,500.

What Comes Next

On Friday, the United States will release producer prices for October. If they also come in hotter than expected, rate fears are likely to grow further, with the Fed’s decision due in December. Next week, Anthropic’s stock begins trading on the Nasdaq, and at the end of November, the removal of Strategy, the largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder, from the MSCI indexes takes effect.

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