Bitcoin Bitcoin (BTC) alongside other primary digital currencies kept declining during the morning hours in Asia as repercussions from the departure of Nvidia cofounder Jensen Huang combined with forecasts of a Federal Reserve interest rate increase to pressure investor sentiment.
The premier cryptocurrency by market cap tumbled 7% throughout the prior 24 hours down to $68,408 as of 12:10 a.m. ET on Friday, marking its lowest position since August 20, according to data from The Block’s bitcoin price tracker. Ether Ethereum (ETH) retreated 6% to change hands at $1,921. BNB decreased by 6.3%, while XRP dropped 3.5%.
Total cryptocurrency liquidations reached $1.47 billion over the past 24 hours, affecting 175,299 individual traders according to CoinGlass data. Long positions represented $1.31 billion of that aggregate. Significantly, liquidations amounted to $798 million across the preceding four hours, which included $718.5 million in liquidated long positions.
“The steep downward movement in crypto appears to be a leverage clearance as BTC penetrated critical price thresholds,” stated Rick Maeda, head of markets at Laevitas. “BTC had already surrendered the $72,000 mark during the U.S. trading session, and once it slipped past $70,000 late in the Asian morning, the long positions clustered underneath that threshold were rapidly flushed out, resulting in upwards of $600 million wiped out in four hours and more than $1.3 billion over the last day.”
Nvidia Aftermath and Federal Reserve Rate Hike Anxieties
Market analysts noted that this broad sell-off arrived as participants continued evaluating the fallout from Nvidia’s executive reorganization alongside expectations of an additional interest rate hike by the Fed.
On Thursday morning, Jensen Huang stepped down from his role as Nvidia CEO following the company’s initiation of an internal probe over the past weekend concerning his interactions with an individual suspected of being a Chinese spy. Prior reports indicated that Huang was involved in romantic relationships with an Nvidia executive reporting directly to him as well as a second Nvidia staff member.
“Traders attempting to catch a market bounce following the risk-off reaction triggered by Nvidia, paired with thin liquidity orders following this week’s Consumer Price Index report, have both contributed to these liquidations,” Maeda explained.
Simultaneously, BTSE COO Jeff Mei informed The Block that bitcoin also declined due to presumptions that the central bank will raise borrowing costs in December to address inflation. Mei mentioned that market participants are monitoring indicators for a prospective 50-basis-point rate increase, which “depends on the trajectory of inflation and unemployment figures, alongside petroleum costs and geopolitical events in the Middle East region.”
“Should the central bank implement a 50-basis-point rate increase rather than the anticipated 25-basis-point adjustment, bitcoin and alternative digital assets could experience further downside room,” Mei added.
Conversely, Jeff Ko, chief analyst at ViaBTC, argued that persistent inflation might actually reinforce bitcoin’s value proposition as an inflation hedge and strengthen the currency debasement trade over an extended horizon.
“Looking forward, financial markets will closely track the upcoming Personal Consumption Expenditures index near the end of November, and more crucially, the December 9 FOMC dot plot projection. Regarding geopolitics, a relaxation of tensions involving Iran could present one of the most direct routes to cooling inflation,” Ko remarked.
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Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/markets/2026-11-13-bitcoin-tumbles-below-69000-439643.
