US producer prices rose less than forecast, and bitcoin moved sharply higher within minutes of the release, catching bearish traders off guard. Short positions accounted for about $39 million of the $41.14 million liquidated in the hour after the data, according to CoinGlass. One trader holding a $52 million short opened shortly before the release ended the move under 2% from a forced exit.
PPI Comes In Below Forecasts
The Producer Price Index measures what businesses pay for goods and services and often hints at what consumers pay later. The Labor Department reported that prices rose 6.5% over the year, below the 6.6% forecast. The monthly gain was 0.3%, under the expected 0.4%.
Core PPI, which excludes volatile components, rose 0.3% for the month and 5.0% year over year, both matching estimates.
Inflation nonetheless remained elevated. The annual PPI rate rose from 6.3% in September.
Bitcoin Jumps Toward $70,000
Bitcoin had dipped below $67,600 earlier in the day before the release. It then jumped from about $69,246 to nearly $70,000 within five minutes, briefly topped $70,200 on Binance, and later eased to about $69,870.
The reversal followed a brutal session for bulls. Over 24 hours, $1.42 billion in crypto positions were liquidated, and 83.4% of that total hit traders betting on gains, CoinGlass data shows.
A $52 Million Short Nears Its Limit
Tracking site Hyperbot shows a trader on the Hyperliquid exchange opened a 750 BTC short 50 minutes before the data was published, at an average entry of $69,008. The trader supplied about $1.94 million of their own funds, with borrowed money at up to 40 times leverage covering the rest.
Hyperbot places the liquidation price, at which the exchange forcibly closes the position, near $70,986. At its peak, bitcoin came within about 1.1% of that level, and the gap later widened to roughly 1.6%.
The position was already down about $208,000 before the release. There is no public evidence that the trader saw the numbers in advance. Closing the bet would mean buying back 750 BTC into a rising market.
In March 2025, a $423 million, 40x bitcoin short on the same exchange sparked a public liquidation hunt.
The Fed Test Ahead
A larger test comes at the Federal Reserve's December 8–9 meeting. Governor Christopher Waller has tied a possible half-point hike to core consumer prices running at 0.3% or more. October's core reading hit exactly that level, according to ING.
