Bitcoin falls under $74,000 as $1 billion in bets are liquidated

Bitcoin fell below $74,000 late on Sunday 8 November, its lowest level since August, as a sudden stock-market scare dragged crypto lower. More than $1 billion in leveraged bets were wiped out in a day.

The flush was fast. Bitcoin dropped from $75,690 to $73,477 in about 15 minutes late on Sunday, news.bitcoin.com reported, before buyers pulled it back. The $1 billion liquidation figure came from CoinGlass, a derivatives data firm, and was carried by Cointelegraph and The Block. Most of the pain fell on traders who had borrowed to bet on higher prices.

A long, leverage-heavy liquidation cascade

About $1.12 billion in leveraged crypto positions were closed out in the 24 hours to 09:00 UTC on 9 November, according to CoinGlass data cited by Cointelegraph. The Block, drawing on the same source, counted more than $1.15 billion, with $1.04 billion of that in long positions against $117 million in shorts. Around 167,764 traders were caught. The numbers do not match. They rarely do, because exchanges report forced sales in bursts and some undercount.

Ether (ETH) took the hardest hit. Traders holding Ether lost more than $500 million, against about $309 million for Bitcoin, The Block reported. The single biggest forced sale was a $48.2 million Ether position on Binance. Forced selling feeds on itself, because each liquidation pushes the price down and trips the next one.

What set it off

The trigger came from the stock market, not from crypto itself. Nvidia's board said on Sunday that it had opened an independent investigation into reports that chief executive Jensen Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort, according to Cointelegraph. The board added that it had no reason to believe US national security or company secrets had been compromised. China's foreign ministry denied the spying claims on Monday.

Nvidia is the most valuable company tied to the artificial-intelligence boom, and traders watch its share price as a gauge for that whole trade. When the AI trade wobbles, risky assets usually follow. Bitcoin did. Mohamed El-Erian, the economist and adviser, called the timing of the probe unfortunate.

That link did not hold for long, though. By Monday US stocks had steadied and were climbing again, yet Bitcoin stayed lower, CoinDesk reported. The gap suggests the crypto sell-off had picked up momentum of its own, driven by the forced selling rather than by the stock scare alone.

Other pressures stacked up. Talks between the United States and Iran stalled over the weekend, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling Tehran's demands outrageous. Investors are also waiting on fresh US inflation data, due Tuesday at 13:30 UTC. Consumer prices rose 3.7 percent in the year to September, and a hot October reading would dim hopes of another interest-rate cut.

Money was already leaving

Money had been flowing out of Bitcoin funds for days before the crash. Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States bled $1.28 billion in the week to Friday, their worst stretch since late June, losing money on four of the five trading days. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) shed $403 million on Friday alone. That run pushed the funds' net flows for all of 2026 to a loss of $914.1 million, turning the year red.

Politics added to the unease. Democrats won back the US House of Representatives in last week's midterm elections, a result that stalled the CLARITY Act, the bill the industry hoped would settle how US regulators divide oversight of crypto. Some traders read the outcome as a sign that friendlier rules are further away than they thought.

Where Bitcoin stands now

Bitcoin clawed back some ground after the drop. It traded near $74,800 at 20:00 UTC on 9 November, down about 1.3 percent on the day, according to CoinGecko. That still sits well above the cycle low of $59,517, set on 28 June.

That weekly close worried chart watchers. Bitcoin finished the week about 0.7 percent below its 50-week moving average, a line near $75,488, said Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy. It was the first weekly close below that average in eight weeks, after seven straight weeks above it. In October, Thorn had written: "We believe the bottom is in, selling pressure has diminished, the debasement case has strengthened, and the crowd has left." On Monday he said that call would hold only if Bitcoin reclaimed the average within a month.

Some economists see a possible upside. Robin Brooks, a markets economist, argued that falling oil prices could help Bitcoin and gold at the margin. Cheaper energy tends to cool inflation, which would give the Federal Reserve more room to cut rates. That is a longer-term read, not a call on this week.

Not everyone thinks the worst is over. The year's ETF outflows and the broken trend line point the other way. One fact cuts through the noise, though. Most of Monday's damage came from borrowed money, not from long-term holders heading for the exit.

What to watch

Tuesday's inflation print is the next real test. A cool October reading would support bets on a December rate cut and could steady risk assets, including Bitcoin. A hot one would not. Two other things are worth watching this week: whether the spot ETFs keep leaking money, and whether Bitcoin can close back above its 50-week average near $75,500. Until it does, the charts stay shaky.