Bitcoin Breaks Below $73,000 for the First Time Since August as a Hot CPI Print and $1.5 Billion in ETF Outflows Pile On

Bitcoin slipped below $73,000 on Tuesday for the first time since August, after a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation report convinced traders that the Federal Reserve will raise rates again next month. The drop caps a week in which the largest cryptocurrency stopped following stocks higher, and the reasons have less to do with headlines than with who is buying and who is selling.

According to CoinDesk’s live markets coverage, bitcoin fell through $73,000 late Tuesday morning, its weakest level since Aug. 20 and roughly 3% lower over 24 hours. Ether, XRP and solana were down closer to 6%. Fortune’s daily price tracker put bitcoin’s loss at about 30% from a year ago, when it traded above $106,000.

The Inflation Print That Sealed a December Hike

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, cooler than September’s 0.6% but above the 0.3% economists had forecast in a Dow Jones poll. Core CPI, which strips out food and energy, rose 0.3% against forecasts of 0.2%. The agency did not publish a year-over-year rate because last year’s government shutdown stopped it from collecting October 2025 data.

The bond market reacted sharply. CoinDesk reported the 10-year Treasury yield climbing about 13 basis points to 4.99% and the two-year yield up 19 basis points to 4.736% in morning trading. Fed Governor Christopher Waller had already said overnight that he favored a December increase even if inflation cooled, and that a hot reading could justify a 50-basis-point move. After the data, CME FedWatch showed traders pricing an 85% chance of a quarter-point hike at the Dec. 9 meeting and a 15% chance of a half-point move, with the odds of a pause falling to zero.

Stocks first shrugged off the report, then turned lower. The Nasdaq fell about 1.1% by mid-morning, led by a roughly 6% drop in Nvidia, and crypto followed the risk-off move down.

Why Bitcoin Missed Monday’s Rally

Tuesday’s slide matters because of what happened the day before. On Monday the S&P 500 posted its best session since April 8 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.7%, yet bitcoin barely moved, CoinDesk’s Crypto Daybook noted. For weeks the two had moved together, including during last week’s AI-led selloff. When an asset falls with stocks but fails to rise with them, it usually points to selling pressure of its own.

The fund flows show that pressure clearly. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost another $201 million on Monday, according to Farside Investors data cited by CoinDesk, bringing outflows since Nov. 2 to about $1.5 billion. The funds are now down roughly $1.1 billion for the year, a sharp reversal after more than $20 billion of net inflows in each of the previous two years. BlackRock’s IBIT, the largest of the products, has posted seven straight sessions of redemptions.

Miners and Corporate Treasuries Are Selling, Not Stacking

Supply is coming from companies that were once reliable holders. MARA Holdings disclosed that it sold 13,597 BTC, worth about $1.1 billion, over the past six weeks and said it plans to sell more. On-chain tracker Lookonchain counts 14 public companies that together have sold 108,247 BTC in 2026, worth about $8.08 billion. MARA leads with 40,581 BTC sold at an average price of $74,446, followed by Riot Platforms with 20,264 BTC at an average of $73,231. The two miners account for about 56% of the total, with Bitdeer and Cango among the other big sellers.

Retail demand isn’t filling the gap. Santiment data cited by CoinDesk shows the bitcoin network has lost about 108,700 non-empty wallets since Oct. 16.

The chart history is not encouraging for bulls either. CoinDesk points out that bitcoin fell to $60,000 in a February crash, rebounded above $82,000 by mid-May, then dropped back to $60,000 by the end of June. It climbed to the mid-$80,000s by late September and has given most of that back since, putting in a new cycle low on Tuesday.

What It Means for Business Readers

Rates now drive the crypto story. With a December hike nearly certain and two-year yields near 4.7%, cash and short-term Treasuries pay a real return again. That raises the cost of holding a non-yielding asset like bitcoin, and it explains why ETF buyers, who are largely advisers and institutions comparing options, are pulling money out.

Treasury strategies need a stress test. Companies that hold bitcoin on their balance sheets should note that the biggest corporate sellers this year are miners selling close to current prices to fund operations. Any finance team holding crypto should model a return to the $60,000 area seen twice this year and know how that would affect covenants, earnings and liquidity.

The infrastructure build-out continues anyway. Even as prices fall, traditional finance keeps adopting blockchain rails. CoinDesk reported that the New York Stock Exchange chose Avalanche to settle trades on a planned 24/7 tokenized securities platform, and European authorities this week launched an industry group to set standards for settling tokenized securities, with first standards targeted for early 2028. For businesses, the practical opportunity is in tokenization, settlement and payments, not in the token’s day-to-day price.

Watch for a possible offset. October’s inflation figures may already be out of date. CoinDesk noted that oil is down about 15% from where it traded for most of October and that AAA’s national average gasoline price dipped below $4 a gallon this week for the first time since late summer. If November’s data cools, the Fed’s tone could soften, and a crowded short-term trade could unwind quickly.

The Bottom Line

Bitcoin’s break below $73,000 combines macro pressure from a hotter CPI print and a near-certain rate hike with selling from ETF holders and public miners. Until those flows turn positive, rallies in stocks may not lift crypto. The Fed’s Dec. 9 decision and next month’s inflation report are the next catalysts to watch.

Edited by Coron @QUE.COM
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