Bitcoin Near $74,700 After $1 Billion in Crypto Liquidations

By Marcus Bennett

Bitcoin recovered to about $74,700 on Monday morning after touching $73,477 overnight, its lowest since August, as leveraged crypto liquidations topped $1 billion over 24 hours.

According to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data, bitcoin fell more than 2% before buyers pushed it above $75,000. The rebound stalled near $74,700 by the New York open.

That left the market caught between two weekend macro shocks and a separate regulatory risk, with traders waiting for U.S. inflation data.

Weekend risk shock

Crypto traded as the only major market open when two headlines arrived. Nvidia faced an internal investigation into whether a foreign intelligence effort had targeted CEO Jensen Huang. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Iranian demands "outrageous" as talks stalled.

Nvidia anchors the AI trade that has supported risk assets this year. Traders treated the investigation as a threat across that complex. CoinDesk reported the scale of the forced unwind:

• More than $1 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated over 24 hours.
• About $913 million of those liquidations came from longs.

The concentration in longs turned the dip into a sharp flush.

The stock market opened more calmly. At 5:10 a.m. ET, as investors hunted bargains:

• Dow futures rose 0.73%.
• S&P 500 futures rose 0.40%.
• Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.21%.

Reuters reported Nvidia shares down 4.5% in premarket trading. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index posted its biggest weekly loss since March 2025, and some chipmakers slipped.

Bitcoin sat out Friday's equity rebound after a hot jobs report. A tech rout on Thursday had already wiped out leveraged longs.

Washington's policy risk

Reuters tied the weekend drop to fears that a Democratic-controlled Congress will tighten oversight of crypto after last week's midterms and the $6 billion Binance heist.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of the Senate's loudest crypto critics, is tipped to lead the Senate Banking Committee. TD Cowen warned that the electoral result makes a crypto-backed CLARITY Act nearly impossible.

House Democrats are already considering their own market-structure bill. It would give the SEC a larger role.

For companies and funds, the change is procedural as much as ideological. Senate passage looks harder, while House negotiations put the SEC's role in market structure at the center.

Institutional money moved in the same direction. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs shed $1.28 billion last week. That marked their second straight week of outflows and the worst since late June. The redemptions kept bitcoin from joining the equity rebound.

For asset managers, the ETF data show that institutional demand weakened even as stock futures recovered.

What does this change for bitcoin traders?

The near-term setup has changed. Leverage has been cut, institutional redemptions have run for two straight weeks, and options now price a wider range of outcomes.

October consumer price data arrive Tuesday. Economists expect headline inflation to rise 0.3% on the month, down from 0.6% in September. Futures imply roughly an 80% chance of a Fed hike at the Dec. 8-9 meeting after the strong October jobs report.

A softer reading would ease pressure on rate-sensitive assets and leveraged positions. A hotter one would reinforce that pressure.

Options markets sent a similar signal. One-week implied volatility jumped to about 43% from about 33% on Thursday. Four of the six most active bitcoin contracts were puts with strikes between $70,000 and $72,000.

The skew shows demand for short-dated downside protection. It does not establish a price floor or a settled forecast for Tuesday.

Weekend market analysis cited by CoinDesk placed support at bitcoin's 200-day moving average, near $73,150. The 100-day average, near $77,430, marked resistance. A close below the lower line would put the August lows back in play. A move toward $77,000 would require a calmer Nvidia story and softer inflation data.

For traders, Monday absorbed a major deleveraging event, not the risks behind it. The next hard checkpoint arrives Tuesday with October CPI, followed by the Dec. 8-9 Fed meeting and the continuing congressional fight over SEC oversight.