Bitcoin slips below $80,000 as $404 million in longs are liquidated

What happened

Bitcoin briefly traded below $80,000, with the dip forcing a large round of liquidations among leveraged bullish traders. Bitcoinist reported that the price touched about $79,280 before recovering above the threshold. Coinspeaker put bitcoin at $79,899 later, down 1.2% over 24 hours and 4.4% for October, after an overnight slide to $79,710.

Citing CoinGlass data reported by The Block, Bitcoinist said crypto liquidations totaled about $436.44 million over four hours, of which $404.15 million came from long positions. The closures came in two clusters: more than $208 million in one 15-minute stretch and another $131 million later. Binance accounted for roughly $226 million and Hyperliquid about $70.47 million, the report said.

Coinspeaker reported more than $350 million in leveraged crypto bets were liquidated over 24 hours. It linked the timing to a selloff in chip stocks after Samsung's chip unit missed analyst estimates, which spilled into crypto during Asian trading. Ether liquidations reached about $136.72 million over the four-hour window, compared with $158.45 million for bitcoin, according to Bitcoinist's account of the CoinGlass figures. Longs made up more than 90% of liquidations for both assets.

Why it matters

Liquidations are a mechanical result of leverage: when a trade moves against a borrowed or derivative position, exchanges can close it to protect margin requirements. When many traders are positioned the same way at similar prices, those forced exits can add to selling pressure. The dominance of longs in the data shows how crowded bullish leverage had become, though it does not by itself show that traders have abandoned longer-term views.

The move also coincided with mixed signals in US spot bitcoin ETF flows. Bitcoinist reported roughly $635.49 million in net outflows on Thursday and $137.94 million on Friday, a two-day total near $773 million, after three days of inflows. Coinspeaker, however, reported $137.3 million of inflows on Wednesday, October 28, the third straight positive session, and about $424 million over three sessions, mostly through BlackRock. The reports cover different windows; ETF flows are one demand gauge and do not independently explain short-term prices.

What the data shows

Beyond liquidations, Coinspeaker said the 12 US spot bitcoin ETFs held $104.9 billion, about 6.4% of all bitcoin by value, and had taken in $57.6 billion net since launching in January 2024; BlackRock's IBIT alone held $66.1 billion. Deribit's DVOL index, a measure of 30-day implied volatility, stood at 36.5 on Wednesday. On price charts, bitcoin was back below its 50-day exponential moving average at $80,789, with the October 24 low of $79,221 serving as a recent floor, while the 200-day EMA had climbed to $76,476.

Background

Coinspeaker reported the Federal Reserve held rates at 3.75% to 4%, with two officials dissenting in favor of a quarter-point hike. The statement described the economy as expanding strongly and inflation as still too high. Chair Kevin Warsh declined to signal the next move, saying he does not believe in forward guidance absent a crisis. Bitcoin initially rose to $81,788 after the decision before falling overnight as tech shares weakened. Prediction markets priced a December quarter-point hike at about 77%, according to Coinspeaker.

November brings midterm elections, fresh jobs and inflation data, and the December Fed decision. Coinspeaker noted that bitcoin has risen in only three of the last eight Novembers on Binance, with the midterm Novembers of 2018 and 2022 down 36.6% and 16.2%, while the post-presidential-election Novembers of 2020 and 2024 gained 42.8% and 37.2%. The outlet cautioned that eight years is a small sample.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said he had closed the directional trading book at his family office, Maelstrom, and taken profits on several tokens including ether, Ethena and Uniswap. He cited uncertainty over macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions and said he would wait for a clearer signal. Bitcoinist noted the move is an example of one investor cutting directional exposure, not evidence that a wider downturn is inevitable.

What is still unclear

Some details remain unsettled. The two accounts use different time windows for liquidations and ETF flows, and neither establishes that ETF withdrawals caused the price drop. Bitcoinist explicitly noted the outflows coincided with the liquidation event but did not prove causation. Coinspeaker's 24-hour liquidation figure also differs from the four-hour CoinGlass total, reflecting different measurement periods rather than a single unified tally.

What to watch

Traders will watch whether bitcoin holds above $80,000 and whether derivatives open interest falls further, which would suggest leverage is being reduced. ETF flow data will be scrutinized after the conflicting late-October readings. Coinspeaker identified the PCE report and November 6 jobs data as near-term tests, with the midterm elections and December Fed decision shaping the macro backdrop.

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