Bitcoin Hits 12-Week Low Amid Dollar Surge and $1.6B Liquidations

Nov 13, 2026, 6:52 a.m. EST

4 min read

Summary

Bitcoin and ether, the top two cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, dropped to points not seen since mid-August.
The U.S. Dollar Index climbed past 103—its highest mark since April 2025—as market participants factored in a potential Federal Reserve interest rate hike for December, alongside the departure of Nvidia’s chief executive.
Data from Farside Investors shows that U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have shed approximately $1.88 billion since the month began.

Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), representing the primary digital assets, tumbled to their weakest positions in twelve weeks as speculators priced in a likely Federal Reserve interest rate increase next month, which boosted the greenback, elevated bond yields, and reduced the appeal of high-risk instruments.

Since midnight UTC, Bitcoin has retreated by 3.5%, breaching the crucial psychological $70,000 threshold and plunging to a trough of $67,770, a price point absent since August 19. Ether dipped to $1,900, marking its lowest valuation since August 18, while the CoinDesk 20 Index declined by 2%.

This market retreat coincided with a strengthening U.S. dollar, supported by the CME Fedwatch tool indicating an 88% probability of a 25-basis-point rate hike and a 12% probability of a 50-basis-point bump following stronger-than-expected inflation metrics released this week. The Dollar Index moved past 103, reaching levels not observed since April 2025.

The digital asset space also felt the impact of Thursday’s resignation by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, which dragged shares of the artificial intelligence chip manufacturer—the planet’s second-biggest firm by market value—down by 4%. Bitcoin frequently displays a strong correlation with technology equities.

Traders employing leverage bore the heaviest blow, suffering $1.64 billion in liquidations over a 24-hour window according to CoinGlass metrics. Long positions comprised 88.7% of the total destruction, encompassing $916 million tied to bitcoin and $289 million tied to ether.

Farside Investors reported that U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds encountered net outflows of $47.7 million on Thursday, extending a six-session consecutive streak of withdrawals totaling roughly $1.44 billion.

Producer price data for October is scheduled for release later in the day, with analysts anticipating a 0.4% monthly increase. The Federal Reserve is set to convene on December 8-9.

Derivatives positioning

Selloff triggers churn: Across a 24-hour period, cryptocurrency futures turnover expanded by 58.3% to reach $269.1 billion, while open interest (OI) contracted by 4.6% to $120.2 billion, indicating that market participants closed out positions and capital exited the ecosystem. Liquidations accelerated by 513.7% to hit $1.64 billion, with long positions responsible for 88.6% of the washout. Order book activity also favored selling pressure, as taker volume skewed 51.9% toward the sell side.
Bitcoin longs flushed: Bitcoin futures contributed $916 million to total liquidations—accounting for over half of the market-wide sum—with 95.2% of those being long positions. Its open interest decreased by 5.4% alongside a 5.9% reduction in price, implying that aggregate capital within bitcoin derivatives remained relatively stable, and the drop in open interest primarily mirrors lower asset valuations. Funding rates sit moderately in negative territory, indicating that short sellers are compensating long holders. The single largest liquidation involved a long position worth $31.1 million executed on Hyperliquid at $72,250.
Ether similar: Ether experienced $289 million in liquidated positions, where 89.5% represented longs. Open interest contracted by 4.1% against a 4.9% decline in price, signifying that capital committed to ether futures likewise remained stable overall. Funding conditions remain negative, meaning short positions continue to pay long positions.
Altcoin exits: Capital did retreat from several smaller digital assets. Open interest for Solana (SOL) decreased by 8.6% alongside a 3.6% price pullback, zcash (ZEC) fell 8.0% against a 3.8% drop, and dogecoin (DOGE) contracted 7.3% against a 3.4% dip. In each instance, open interest reductions heavily outpaced price corrections, signaling that traders actively liquidated their holdings.
Funding negative: The majority of prominent tokens maintain slightly negative funding levels, encompassing BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, and Tron’s TRX, which signifies that short sellers are paying long traders and bearish positioning is actively sought. CC recorded the most severely negative funding rate across the board.
Market-order selling: Throughout the 24-hour duration, every major token registered a negative cumulative volume delta (CVD), demonstrating that market-order sell pressure outpaced buy orders. BTC exhibited the most negative reading, followed by Uniswap’s UNI, DOGE, and Sui’s SUI.
Put demand: Within the options sector, the bitcoin one-week 25-delta skew climbed near 14%, showing that downside hedging demands a higher premium than upside exposure. One-week implied volatility, representing expected market movement magnitude, peaked close to 43% prior to stabilizing around 40%, indicating that traders are not actively paying up for amplified price swings. The heavily traded ether option by a wide margin was the $1,800 put contract expiring on November 20, sitting 7.5% beneath current market prices.

Token talk

Aave’s lending ecosystem drew attention after Nasdaq-listed BTCS announced it offloaded ether at a loss to safeguard an approximate $64 million Aave credit facility from forced liquidation, which CoinDesk calculations place at risk if ether drops toward $1,717.
The CoinDesk DeFi Select Index (DFX) slid 3.5% since midnight UTC, marking the most severe contraction among sector benchmarks, while aero (AERO) shed 8.0% to become the weakest asset in the CoinDesk 100.
Solana (SOL) dropped 2.4%, falling beneath the $80 threshold despite announcement from Wall Street clearing institution DTCC incorporating it into asset tokenization strategies targeting a 2027 rollout.
Midnight (NIGHT), the privacy-focused network associated with Cardano, surrendered earlier gains, sliding 5.7% after previously advancing 11% across the week.
Near (NEAR) led the nine tokens within the CoinDesk 100 showing positive momentum, gaining 2.6%, positioned ahead of falcon finance (FF) at 2.5% and kite (KITE) at 2.2%, absent any obvious fundamental catalysts for the moves.
CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season gauge advanced from 39 to 48 on Thursday as selected alternative coins demonstrated relative strength against bitcoin, although it remains well below the threshold of 75 indicative of a true altcoin season. The Fear and Greed Index rests at 19, a reading that signifies extreme fear.