Hotter Than Your Liquidations: CPI Torch $200M in Crypto Leverage 🔥

A hotter-than-expected US Consumer Price Index report erased about $200 million in leveraged cryptocurrency bets within five minutes on November 10, 2026, as Bitcoin ($BTC) dropped below $74,000 and traders increased expectations of a larger Federal Reserve rate hike. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that October headline CPI rose 0.4% month over month, above Wall Street’s expected 0.23%, while core CPI, excluding food and energy, held at 0.3% for a third consecutive month.

Bitcoin swung between $74,770 and $73,525 on Binance during the five minutes following the 8:30 a.m. ET release, closing the window near $73,709, down 0.9%, and traded around $73,918 by 8:36 a.m. ET. About $200 million in long positions were liquidated, with a separate report estimating approximately $178 million in crypto longs closed within an hour as collateral shortfalls forced exchanges to complete the trades. Ethereum ($ETH) fell below $2,050 and toward $2,040 during the initial selloff.

The CPI reading followed comments from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller in London that another core inflation reading of 0.3% or higher could warrant a 50-basis-point increase in December. “In that case, I believe a 50-basis-point hike in the policy rate should be considered at the December meeting,” Waller said. “Hiking only 25-basis-points would put our credibility at risk, a risk I am not eager to take.” Before the report, markets had priced in 84% odds of a quarter-point December rate hike; CME FedWatch data as of 16:28 UTC later showed an 88.3% chance of a 25-basis-point increase and an 11.7% chance of a 50-basis-point hike.

Jeff Anderson, head of US at crypto trading firm STS Digital, said the post-release market priced in more tightening than before. “Following today’s CPI release, markets are now pricing approximately 27 basis points of tightening into the December rate curve,” Anderson said. “The prospect of another rate hike is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.” The Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate at 3.75% to 4% in October, after raising it by a quarter-point in September.

The broader crypto market declined as the rate outlook shifted, with total market capitalization falling 1.6% over 24 hours to $2.57 trillion, according to CoinGecko. Bitcoin traded near $73,274, down 2%, while Ether fell nearly 5% to around $2,028 and Solana ($SOL) dropped 5.6% to $82. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded another $201 million in net withdrawals on Monday, while Bitcoin exchange-traded funds shed $1.28 billion as December Fed hike odds climbed.

Inflation continued to advance across major categories: food prices rose 0.5%, groceries increased 0.4%, restaurant meals climbed 0.5%, energy rose 0.7% and seasonally adjusted gasoline gained 1.0%. Gasoline was 37.4% higher than a year earlier. Housing costs rose 0.3% after 0.4% in September, and spot gold fell 0.6% to about $4,048 an ounce in the same five-minute window in which crypto liquidations peaked. Headline forecasts had ranged from Morgan Stanley’s 0.19% to Wells Fargo’s 0.28%, with core CPI estimates led by Goldman Sachs.