Bitcoin, Ether Hit 12-Week Lows as Dollar Rally Triggers $1.6 Billion in Liquidations

Bitcoin and ether fell to their lowest levels in 12 weeks on Friday as traders priced in a Federal Reserve rate increase for next month, triggering $1.64 billion in leveraged-position liquidations over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data.

Bitcoin slid 3.5% since midnight UTC, breaking through the $70,000 level and touching $67,770 — a price last seen on Aug. 19. Ether dropped to $1,900, its weakest since Aug. 18. The CoinDesk 20 Index fell 2%.

The selloff tracks a strengthening dollar. The CME FedWatch tool showed traders assigning an 88% probability to a 25-basis-point rate hike next month and a 12% chance of a 50-basis-point move, after this week's hotter-than-estimated inflation data. The Dollar Index climbed above 103, its highest since April 2025. Rising bond yields made riskier assets broadly less attractive.

Crypto also absorbed a shock from the equity side. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned Thursday, and shares of the AI chip maker — the world's second-largest company by market capitalization — tumbled 4%. Bitcoin tends to trade in close correlation with technology stocks.

Who took the losses?

Leveraged longs bore almost all the damage. Of the $1.64 billion liquidated, long positions accounted for 88.7%, including $916 million in bitcoin and $289 million in ether, per CoinGlass. The largest single liquidation was a $31.1 million long on Hyperliquid, taken out at $72,250.

Bitcoin futures dominated the wipeout: 95.2% of its $916 million in liquidations were longs. Ether's $289 million in forced closures was 89.5% longs.

Spot ETF investors kept pulling money too. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded net withdrawals of $47.7 million on Thursday, according to Farside Investors — the sixth consecutive day of outflows, totaling roughly $1.44 billion.

What does the derivatives data show?

The churn was heavy. Crypto futures trading volume jumped 58.3% over 24 hours to $269.1 billion, while open interest fell 4.6% to $120.2 billion — traders closed positions and money left the market. Liquidations surged 513.7% from the prior period. Market orders tilted toward selling, with 51.9% of taker volume on the sell side.

In bitcoin, open interest fell 5.4% against a 5.9% price drop, so net money in bitcoin futures held roughly steady — the decline in open interest mostly reflects the lower price, not an exodus of capital. Ether showed the same pattern: open interest down 4.1% against a 4.9% price drop.

Smaller tokens told a different story. Solana's open interest fell 8.6% against a 3.6% price drop; zcash fell 8.0% against 3.8%; dogecoin fell 7.3% against 3.4%. In each case open interest dropped by far more than price — a sign traders were actively closing positions and money genuinely left those markets.

Funding rates turned negative across most large caps, including bitcoin, ether, XRP, Solana and Tron's TRX, meaning shorts are paying longs and bearish exposure is in demand. Cumulative volume delta was negative across all top coins over 24 hours, with bitcoin the most negative, followed by Uniswap's UNI, dogecoin and Sui's SUI — market-order selling outweighed buying throughout.

How are options traders positioned?

Downside protection is now expensive. Bitcoin's one-week 25-delta skew jumped to around 14%, meaning puts cost significantly more than calls. One-week implied volatility peaked near 43% before settling around 40%, so traders expect sharp moves but aren't paying extreme premiums for them.

Ether options show the same defensive tilt. The most-traded contract by a wide margin was the $1,800 put expiring Nov. 20 — a strike 7.5% below the current price.

What comes next?

October producer price data lands later today, with economists expecting a 0.4% monthly rise. The Fed's next meeting runs Dec. 8–9, giving markets a fixed date for the rate decision now priced at 88% odds for a quarter-point hike.