Bitcoin Sinks Below $70,000 for the First Time Since August as December Rate-Hike Bets Wipe Out $1.6 Billion in Leveraged Longs

Bitcoin slid below $70,000 on Friday for the first time since August, as traders moved to price in a Federal Reserve rate increase next month and a stronger dollar drained appetite for risk. The drop set off a wave of forced selling in crypto derivatives that erased more than $1.6 billion in leveraged positions in a single day, most of it from traders who had bet on prices going up.

For businesses that hold digital assets, accept them as payment, or simply watch crypto as a gauge of risk appetite, the move matters less for the round number than for what drove it: tighter money, a fragile tech trade, and leverage that turned a steady decline into a sharp one.

How Far and How Fast

According to CoinDesk, bitcoin fell as low as $67,770, a level last seen on August 19, while ether touched $1,900, its weakest since August 18. Unchained, via Yahoo Finance, reported that the first trade under $70,000 on Coinbase came in the hour after 9 p.m. ET on Thursday, with the low of $67,555 arriving around midnight ET. That report put bitcoin roughly 15% below the approximately $80,760 it traded at on the afternoon of October 29.

By late morning Friday, bitcoin was trading near $68,449, down 4.72% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data cited by EconoTimes. Investing.com said the world’s largest cryptocurrency was on track to lose nearly 8% this week, its sixth straight weekly decline.

The Rate-Hike Trade Comes for Crypto

The main driver is the Fed. After October consumer prices came in hotter than expected, with headline CPI up 0.4% and core CPI up 0.3% according to Unchained, the CME FedWatch tool showed traders assigning an 88% chance to a quarter-point hike at the Fed’s December 8-9 meeting and a 12% chance of a half-point move, CoinDesk reported. The Dollar Index climbed above 103, its highest level since April 2025.

That backdrop is unusual for crypto investors used to cheering rate cuts. The Fed held its target range at 3.75% to 4% on October 28, with two officials dissenting in favor of a hike, after raising rates in September, per Unchained. The 10-year Treasury yield reached 5.10% on Thursday, up from 4.88% on Monday. When safe government debt pays that much, speculative assets that produce no income have to work harder to attract money.

Tech added to the pressure. CoinDesk noted that Thursday’s resignation of Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang sent the chipmaker’s shares down 4%, and bitcoin has tended to trade closely with technology stocks. James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, told Unchained that bitcoin does not need a direct economic link to AI to suffer when investors cut risk across their portfolios.

Leverage Turned a Slide Into a Flush

The speed of the drop came from the derivatives market. CoinGlass data cited by CoinDesk showed $1.64 billion of liquidations over 24 hours, with long positions accounting for about 88.7% of the damage. Bitcoin positions made up $916 million of the total and ether $289 million. The single largest liquidation was a $31.1 million bitcoin long on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.

Rick Maeda, head of markets at Laevitas, described it to The Block as a leverage event: once bitcoin broke $70,000 during Asian trading hours, long positions clustered below that level were forced out quickly. Crypto futures volume jumped 58.3% to $269.1 billion while open interest fell 4.6% to $120.2 billion, a sign that traders were closing positions rather than adding new ones, according to CoinDesk.

Sentiment followed. CoinDesk reported that the Fear and Greed Index sat at 19, a reading that denotes extreme fear, and that funding rates on most large coins had turned slightly negative, meaning traders were paying to hold bearish bets. In options, demand for downside protection pushed bitcoin’s one-week skew to around 14%.

ETF Money Is Still Leaving

Institutional demand has not stepped in to catch the fall. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded net withdrawals of $47.7 million on Thursday, a sixth straight day of outflows totaling about $1.44 billion, according to Farside Investors data cited by CoinDesk. SoSoValue data reported by Unchained put November outflows at $1.88 billion through November 11.

Investing.com also pointed to lingering concern over MSCI’s decision to remove Strategy, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, from its indexes, which Que.com covered on Thursday. Together, ETF redemptions and doubts about corporate treasury buyers remove two of the main sources of steady demand that supported prices earlier in the cycle.

Why It Matters for Business Readers

Three lessons stand out for companies with any crypto exposure.

Collateral risk is real. CoinDesk reported that Nasdaq-listed BTCS disclosed it sold ether at a loss to protect a roughly $64 million loan on the lending platform Aave from liquidation, a loan CoinDesk calculated would come under threat near $1,717 per ether. Any business that borrows against digital assets, or works with partners that do, should know exactly where its liquidation thresholds sit and how much cushion it has.

Forecast ranges are not floors. CoinShares’ base case has been a $70,000-to-$90,000 band for bitcoin into 2027. Butterfill told Unchained the move below $70,000 puts the lower end of that view under pressure and should not be treated as a hard floor. Treasury teams that size crypto holdings or payment acceptance on the assumption of a stable range should stress-test deeper drawdowns.

Macro now leads. With the Fed meeting in under four weeks and inflation data still coming in, crypto is trading like a high-beta macro asset. Butterfill said a lasting move back above $90,000 would likely need expectations of easier monetary policy, renewed buying by large holders, or both. That puts upcoming inflation releases and the December decision at the center of any near-term outlook.

The Bottom Line

Bitcoin’s break below $70,000 was not caused by a single crypto-specific shock. It came from the combination of rising rate expectations, a firmer dollar, a shaky AI and tech trade, steady ETF outflows, and an overleveraged futures market that amplified each step down. Until the rate outlook shifts or big buyers return, businesses holding or accepting digital assets should plan for volatility rather than a quick rebound.

Edited by Coron @QUE.COM
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