Bitcoin price traded near $69,800 on Friday morning after briefly crashing to about $67,555 around midnight Eastern, its lowest level since mid-August, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data. The rebound held after October producer prices rose less than economists had expected, though the U.S. dollar remained near a 19-month high and traders still fully priced a December Federal Reserve rate hike.
Bitcoin price was trading near $72,800 at this time Thursday. It slipped toward $71,000 by Thursday evening, then gave way late at night, breaking below $70,000 and sliding to that midnight low. The move also pushed the bitcoin price below its 200-week moving average, a long-term trend line near $68,000. Buyers lifted it back above $69,000 before sunrise, and the rebound extended toward $69,800 after the producer-price report.
A stronger dollar and higher yields weigh on the bitcoin price
The U.S. Dollar Index held above 103 Friday after a three-day rally took it to its highest level since April 2025. The 10-year Treasury yield was near 5.15% ahead of the data, and two-year yields, which track Fed expectations most closely, were on pace for their worst week since 2024, Bloomberg reported.
Traders still see an 88% chance of a quarter-point hike at the Fed’s Dec. 8-9 meeting and a 12% chance of a half-point move, CME FedWatch data show. Fed Governor Christopher Waller has added a 50-basis-point increase to the discussion, and New York Fed President John Williams said Thursday that inflation remains high and policymakers need to take further action.
Higher rates raise the cost of holding an asset that pays no interest, and a stronger dollar tends to drain demand for risk assets. Both have pressured the bitcoin price since this week’s hotter-than-expected consumer price index.
Bitcoin has also broken from tech stocks. It fell 5.9% between Nov. 5 and Nov. 12 while the Nasdaq 100 gained 6.4%, a sign it is trading more on yields and the dollar than on the AI trade. Nasdaq 100 futures were up about 0.6% Friday after the producer-price report, as investors also weighed Nvidia’s announcement that Jensen Huang had resigned as CEO.
Leverage unwinds and ETF selling continues
The break below $70,000 set off a wave of forced selling. About $1.64 billion in crypto positions were liquidated over 24 hours, with bets on higher prices making up nearly 89% of the total and bitcoin positions accounting for $916 million.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs added to the pressure. The funds posted about $47.7 million in net outflows Thursday, their sixth straight day of withdrawals, bringing the run to roughly $1.49 billion. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) alone bled about $2 billion over nine sessions through Wednesday, and the group has now flipped to about $1.56 billion in net outflows for 2026.
Sentiment has soured with it. A widely watched crypto fear and greed gauge dropped to 20 Friday, its lowest reading since July 8, and bitcoin is now on track for a second straight down year.
Positioning has turned defensive. Average perpetual futures funding rates turned negative for the first time in a month as the price fell toward $68,500, meaning short sellers are now paying to hold their bets. Order books are also thin. Bitcoin order-book depth across major exchanges fell to $72 million on Nov. 9, roughly 33% below normal levels. “Liquidity remains thin while leverage stays elevated, leaving the market vulnerable to sharp moves in either direction,” said Tanay Ved, a senior research associate at Talos.
Producer prices rise less than expected
The Labor Department said Friday that the Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.3% in October, short of the 0.4% monthly increase economists had expected, after a revised 1.4% advance in September. Core prices, which exclude food and energy, increased 0.3%, matching forecasts. On an unadjusted basis, the headline index was up 6.5% from a year earlier, the largest 12-month rise since November 2022. The slightly cooler report took some pressure off the dollar, which still held above 103, but a December rate hike remains fully priced, leaving limited relief for the bitcoin price heading into the weekend.
At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is near $69,800.
