Crypto liquidations hit $948 million as Bitcoin dips under $80,000 after hot PPI data, 90.6% of them longs
Bitcoin dropped below $80,000 on Thursday after September PPI came in at 6.3% annually, a day after a hot CPI report. CoinGlass counted $948.22 million of liquidations, 90.6% of them longs, and Nexo says US spot ETF holders are back underwater.
The Investor · Invest desk
Key figures: US spot ETF holders' average cost near $82,300; Bitcoin's bounce level near $80,925; the low of the drop at $79,711.
| Figure | Value | Note | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average cost of US spot ETF holders, near | $82,300 | 16 | |
| Bounce level, near | $80,925 | 2 | |
| Low of the drop | $79,711 | 2 |
What happened
- Wednesday's CPI showed September consumer prices up 3.7% year over year against a 3.6% forecast, with core inflation at 2.6% against 2.5%, according to Decrypt.
- Core PPI rose to 5% against an expected 4.4%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by Cointelegraph.
- Ethereum led the liquidations at $282.03 million, with Bitcoin just behind at a little over $200 million, per CoinGlass.
- Decrypt counted it as the third-heaviest day for long liquidations in 90 days, behind October 8 and August 22.
- Bitcoin's drop reached $79,711 before buyers pulled it back near $80,925, off a rising trend band near $80,286.
Why it matters
- contradiction Decrypt blames revived Fed hike bets, yet Cointelegraph reports the 10-year yield down almost 3% to its lowest since Sept. 23. The rate channel is missing from the benchmark yield.
- exposure A break of the $80,286 trend band exposes $78,002 and then $75,092, 7.2% under the $80,925 bounce, and Decrypt describes forced selling as tripping the next batch of leveraged longs.
- constraint Nexo's Kalchev names the ETF cost line near $82,300 as the first test of any rebound. That recovery target sits about 1.7% above the $80,925 bounce.
The $948.22 million was spread across 177,440 traders [8], an average of about $5,300 each [26]. The mean hides the size of the biggest order. One Bitcoin long on Binance, $12.03 million force-closed at $80,208.96, was 1.3% of the day's total on its own [12][27]. Shorts took $89.26 million [28]. Ethereum and Bitcoin together came to roughly $482 million, a little over half [10][29]. We think that points to longs crowded before the data landed, and the CoinGlass tally does not show positioning ahead of the move [8].
Decrypt attributes the fall to hotter prints reviving bets on another Fed hike [38], and the prints were hot. PPI beat Decrypt's 5.5% forecast by 0.8 points [33][40] and Cointelegraph's 5.3% by a full 100 basis points [34]. The yield market did not behave as that story needs. Robin Brooks, formerly Goldman Sachs's chief FX strategist, found that the 30-day correlation between upside data surprises and daily moves in the 10-year yield had dropped from near 0.6 earlier in 2026 to just below zero by the end of August [14]. "That indicates that yields have decoupled from data," he said in a blog post last month [15]. The obvious explanation, in his words, is that "markets are more focused on the trajectory of the deficit, so they're pushing up longer-term yields regardless of what data surprises are doing" [15].
We think Nexo's Iliya Kalchev has the better reading. He sees a broad exit from risk, one in which a possible Fed hike is one input among several, with stocks and copper falling, gold rising and Kospi down about 8% [36]. Cointelegraph puts the Kospi at 7.5% and calls it a tech sell-off centered in South Korea [37]. The counter-thesis is Decrypt's: higher rates make borrowing pricier and strengthen the dollar, draining the cheap money leveraged crypto traders run on [39]. We would be wrong if Bitcoin keeps falling after Korean stocks steady.
Decrypt's own text puts Bitcoin at two different distances from the ETF cost line. It has Bitcoin trading "just about $82,000" at one point [6], which would be 0.4% under the $82,300 average cost [31]. Kalchev's roughly 2% gap fits the $80,925 level the chart bounced to [2][16]. His condition for a durable rebound goes beyond that line: "ETF flows have to turn consistently positive, after $681 million of outflows last week and a single $177 million inflow day," Kalchev said [18]. That one inflow day is 26% of the outflow figure [32].
The chart damage so far is modest. The $79,711 low retraced 31.3% of the rally from $62,763 to $87,422 [2][4][25], RSI fell to about 44, and the golden cross still holds [5]. Rekt Capital pointed to the 21-week and 50-week EMAs at $76,144 and $78,459 as support a retest could reach [21]. "Deviating below them on a volatile retest to find a pullback bottom has historically happened in early-stage Bull Markets," he said, though Bitcoin is still pre-crossover, he noted [22]. Kalchev, who sees more risk exit than Fed story, added that a "Fed path that stops at one 25 basis point hike would take some pressure off the backdrop" [20].
What to watch
- A daily close above $81,603 would reopen $84,245 and the $87,422 swing high, per Decrypt's chart read.
- The Fed decision on October 28, core PCE inflation the next day and October payrolls on November 6.
- A further Bitcoin decline while the Kospi holds steady would favour the rate explanation over the risk-exit one.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence64
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+12
- Incentives
- Insufficient
- Confidence66
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Wednesday's inflation report showed consumer prices up 3.7% year over year in September against a 3.6% forecast, with core inflation at 2.6% against 2.5%.
- [2]
On the daily chart the drop reached $79,711 before buyers pulled the price back near $80,925, off a rising trend band near $80,286.
- [3]
On the daily chart, a close back above $81,603 would reopen the path to $84,245 and the $87,422 swing high; losing $80,286 would expose $78,002 as the next support, then $75,092.
- [4]
Bitcoin's August-to-October rally ran from $62,763 to $87,422.
- [5]
The Relative Strength Index fell to about 44, while the golden cross still keeps the longer-term uptrend intact.
- [6]
Decrypt's text says Bitcoin is currently trading just about $82,000 after several hours of increased volatility.
- [7]
Bitcoin dipped below $80,000 on Thursday as US PPI data significantly beat expectations, a day after CPI also overshot estimates.
- [8]
Crypto liquidations reached $948.22 million in 24 hours across 177,440 traders, per CoinGlass.
- [9]
Long positions accounted for $858.96 million of the liquidations, or 90.6%.
- [10]
Ethereum led liquidations with $282.03 million, with Bitcoin just behind at a little over $200 million.
- [11]
This was the third-heaviest day for long liquidations in the last 90 days, behind October 8 and August 22.
- [12]
The largest single order liquidated was a $12.03 million Bitcoin long on Binance, force-closed at $80,208.96.
- [13]
The US 10-year bond yield was down almost 3% at the time of writing, at its lowest levels since Sept. 23, and El-Erian and others noted yields were not rising on the higher inflation numbers.
- [14]
Robin Brooks, former chief FX strategist at Goldman Sachs, compared the 30-day correlation between upside data surprises and daily moves in the 10-year yield and found it had dropped from near 0.6 earlier in 2026 to just below zero as of the end of August.
- [15]
"That indicates that yields have decoupled from data and the obvious explanation for this is that markets are more focused on the trajectory of the deficit, so they're pushing up longer-term yields regardless of what data surprises are doing," Brooks said in a blog post last month.
- [16]
Bitcoin is roughly 2% below the average cost of US spot ETF holders, near $82,300, after closing above that line on 21 of the 24 days since September 21, which puts ETF buyers back underwater.
- [17]
Kalchev said reclaiming the ETF average cost line is the first test of any rebound.
- [18]
"ETF flows have to turn consistently positive, after $681 million of outflows last week and a single $177 million inflow day," Kalchev said.
- [19]
The Fed announces its rate decision on October 28, followed by core PCE inflation data the next day and October payrolls on November 6.
- [20]
Kalchev added that a "Fed path that stops at one 25 basis point hike would take some pressure off the backdrop."
- [21]
The 21-week and 50-week exponential moving averages sit at $76,144 and $78,459, and trader Rekt Capital noted BTC/USD could still retest both and preserve its overall bullish trend.
- [22]
"Deviating below them on a volatile retest to find a pullback bottom has historically happened in early-stage Bull Markets. These deviations however would occur after a bullish crossovers of these two EMAs, whereas Bitcoin is still pre-crossover," Rekt Capital said in an X post.
- [23]
Once losses eat through collateral the exchange sells a leveraged position automatically, and that forced selling drags prices lower and trips the next batch of leveraged longs.
- [24]
The $75,092 support is about 7.2% below the $80,925 bounce level.
- [25]
The $79,711 low retraced about 31.3% of the $62,763 to $87,422 rally.
- [26]
The average liquidated trader accounted for about $5,300 of liquidations.
- [27]
The largest single liquidated order was about 1.3% of the day's total.
- [28]
Short liquidations totalled about $89.26 million.
- [29]
Ethereum and Bitcoin liquidations together were roughly $482 million, about 50.8% of the total, using $200 million as a floor for Bitcoin.
- [30]
The $82,300 ETF cost line is about 1.7% above the $80,925 bounce level.
- [31]
At $82,000, Bitcoin would be about 0.4% below the $82,300 ETF average cost.
- [32]
The single $177 million inflow day equals about 26% of the $681 million of outflows.
- [33]
Thursday's Producer Price Index rose 6.3% annually versus a 5.5% forecast.
- [34]
September PPI came in at 6.3% against market expectations of 5.3%, a full 100 basis points above its anticipated level.
- [35]
Core PPI rose to 5% versus an expected 4.4%, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
- [36]
Iliya Kalchev, analyst at Nexo, reads the selloff as a broad exit from risk more than a Fed story, with stocks and copper falling, gold rising and South Korea's Kospi down about 8%.
- [37]
Risk assets were under pressure from a tech sell-off centered in South Korea, where the KOSPI Composite Index fell 7.5% on Thursday.
- [38]
Hotter-than-expected CPI and PPI data revived bets on another Fed rate hike.
- [39]
Higher rates make borrowing pricier and strengthen the dollar, draining the cheap money leveraged crypto traders run on.
- [40]
PPI beat Decrypt's forecast by 0.8 percentage points.
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Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- cointelegraph.comBitcoin slips under $80K after US PPI gains most in four years
1 article · October 15, 2026
- decrypt.coBitcoin Whipsaws as Crypto Liquidations Near $1 Billion
1 article · October 15, 2026
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