Bitcoin (BTC) dropped to about $73,500 late Sunday, its lowest level since August, as more than $1 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated ahead of this week’s US inflation reports.
The decline came shortly before the weekly close, with BTC briefly recovering above $75,000 afterward, according to TradingView data.
Crypto liquidations top $1.1 billion
About $1.12 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated in the 24 hours through 9 am UTC Monday, according to CoinGlass.
Bitcoin fell below its 50-week simple moving average (SMA) of $75,492 and approached its 21-week SMA of $73,078.
The cryptocurrency also traded below the short-term holder cost basis, which CryptoQuant put at $75,691 on Monday. That metric estimates the average cost basis of coins that last moved less than 155 days ago.
A CryptoQuant community analyst placed the cost basis for coins that last moved one to three months ago at about $79,300, noting that level could act as resistance if recent buyers sell as they break even.
Trader Rekt Capital said Sunday that selling volume would need to rise before sellers showed signs of exhaustion.
“Seller Exhaustion tends to happen exactly at or very close to a Bitcoin price bottom,” Rekt Capital wrote on X.
Nasdaq futures swing after Nvidia announces probe
Nvidia’s board said Sunday it had launched an independent investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. The board said it had no reason to believe US national security or company secrets had been compromised. China’s foreign ministry denied the spying allegations on Monday.
Nasdaq 100 futures fell early Monday, recovered and then turned lower again ahead of the US open. S&P 500 and Dow futures were still up as Nasdaq 100 futures turned lower.
The probe followed last week’s tech sell-off, when investors weighed the outlook for AI spending and potential changes to US regulation after the midterm elections.
Economist Mohamed El-Erian called the timing of the probe “unfortunate,” given Nvidia’s importance to the tech sector and the wider market.
“The company is systemically important for tech, markets and the economy; Investors tend to struggle to price in key-person and governance issues; and there are fluid national security and geopolitical dynamics,” he wrote in a blog post.
In Asia, South Korea’s benchmark Kospi closed down 0.8% at 5,018.85 on Monday. The exchange briefly halted trading Friday after the index fell more than 8% shortly after the open.
South Korean Vice Minister of Science and ICT Ryu Jemyung told a parliamentary budget committee Monday that he expected contracted Nvidia chip deliveries to stay on schedule.
“We expect production and the delivery schedule for contracted volumes to proceed without disruption,” he said, according to CNA.
US inflation reports loom as oil trades near $90
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics will release October’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Tuesday and Producer Price Index (PPI) on Friday. Both reports are due at 8:30 am ET.
Consumer prices rose 3.7% from a year earlier in September. Gasoline prices rose 9.1% from August and accounted for more than half of the monthly increase in the overall index.
US President Donald Trump told CNN on Sunday that renewed US strikes on Iran were “highly unlikely” and said the decision depended on whether Tehran signed an agreement.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures traded near $90 a barrel Monday morning.
Economist Robin Brooks said Sunday that the war was keeping oil prices elevated and that a decline in crude could lift Bitcoin, stocks and precious metals.
“I’m not saying that risk premium should disappear completely, but can we go to $75 a barrel? Absolutely,” he said.
Brooks forecast that Bitcoin would continue to display a negative correlation with oil as the dust settles on the US midterm elections.
“I think there’s a lot of downside for oil and I think that means upside for gold at the margin, for silver, the S&P 500 and for Bitcoin,” he continued.
“I do think that the outlook as oil prices come down, both in terms of the risk premium more broadly in the market and in terms of interest rates, it should be a relatively favorable picture.”
As markets price in 78.8% odds of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates by 25 basis points in December, per data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, multiple Fed officials will take to the stage in the coming days, providing insight on their stance on inflation trends and the economy.
Among them, Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman are both scheduled to speak on the economic outlook on Tuesday. Waller will appear at the Bank of England and its Watchers Conference 2026 in London, while Bowman will speak at the C. Peter McColough Series on International Economics in Washington.
