Bitcoin Price Breaks Below $72K as $656M Liquidation Bloodbath Hits Crypto - Bitcoin News

The sell-off battered leveraged bullish traders, with more than 122,000 traders liquidated in the 24-hour period. The largest single liquidation event involved a $31.09 million BTC-USD long position on Hyperliquid, closed at around $72,250.

Binance accounted for approximately 37% of the exchange-level liquidation activity. The damage intensified around 8:15 a.m., when roughly $226.5 million in positions disappeared, overwhelmingly concentrated among longs.

Bitstamp shows bitcoin trading near $71,888 as of this writing, with hourly candles illustrating successive lower highs and lower lows following earlier prices around $76,081.

Forced Selling Intensifies

Selling volume increased during the sharper declines, suggesting aggressive liquidation-driven activity rather than an orderly retreat. The market downturn follows reports of Jensen Huang resigning from Nvidia over his extramarital affair with an alleged Chinese spy.

The immediate question is whether forced selling has exhausted itself or merely exposed a deeper absence of willing buyers.

Multiple Catalysts

While the Nvidia news broke just recently, withdrawals from U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have become a prominent concern. Macroeconomic anxiety has also entered the discussion, particularly claims of unexpectedly firm October inflation and renewed speculation about Federal Reserve tightening.

Technology-sector weakness, including Nvidia’s leadership shakeup, has likewise been cited as a possible influence by many market observers. Additional concerns include index-related pressure on Strategy, contracting stablecoin supplies, and weaker U.S. buying activity reflected in Coinbase premium indicators.

Recovering the $75,600 to $75,700 region could improve the technical picture, but that level offers no guarantee of renewed demand.