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Bitcoin slips under $74,000 and loses its 50-week average as over $1 billion in crypto bets get wiped out
Summary
Bitcoin briefly fell below $74,000 into Monday after closing Sunday below its 50-week moving average for the first time in eight weeks, as more than $1 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated over 24 hours, The Block and Bitcoin Magazine reported.
Bitcoin Magazine put the overnight low at $73,477, its lowest since August, before a bounce to about $74,700, and tied the slide to the Nvidia probe into CEO Jensen Huang, stalled Iran talks and fears of tougher crypto oversight from a Democratic Congress.
Both outlets said U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost $1.28 billion last week, the most since late June; The Block said the funds have now flipped to net outflows for 2026.
Galaxy's Alex Thorn told The Block that his bullish technical case would hold if bitcoin regains the 50-week average within a month.
Key facts
- The Block, citing CoinGlass: total liquidations exceeded $1.15 billion, including $1.04 billion in longs and $117 million in shorts, across 167,764 traders; ether accounted for over $500 million versus about $309 million for bitcoin.
- Outlets differ on the long figure: Bitcoin Magazine said about $913 million of the more than $1 billion liquidated came from longs, while The Block reported $1.04 billion in longs.
- The Block: the largest single liquidation was a $48.2 million ETH-USDT long on Binance; liquidation data is imperfect, so totals are likely higher.
- The Block: Thorn said bitcoin closed the week about 0.7% below its 50-week moving average of $75,488, after reclaiming it on Sept. 20 and holding above for seven weeks.
- The Block: the 12 spot bitcoin ETFs lost money on four of five days last week and are at $914.1 million in net outflows for 2026; BlackRock's IBIT shed $403 million on Friday.
- Bitcoin Magazine: Nvidia shares were down 4.5% premarket, per Reuters, while U.S. index futures attempted a recovery.
- Bitcoin Magazine: October CPI data on Tuesday is the next test, and one-week implied volatility for bitcoin rose to about 43% from about 33% on Thursday.
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