Bitcoin falls below $81K as nearly $1B gets liquidated

A hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation report rattled markets early Thursday. It revived fears the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates again this month. Bitcoin dropped below $81,000. Ether, XRP, and other coins slid too. Across the market, nearly $1 billion in leveraged bets got forced closed within 24 hours. Ether traders took the biggest hit.

Leverage is why this hurt so fast. Traders who use leverage borrow money to bet bigger than their own cash allows. When prices swing hard, exchanges automatically close those bets to limit losses — that's what "liquidated" means here. Ether absorbed roughly 60% of today's forced closures, falling harder than bitcoin by percentage. The same inflation worry hit stocks in Asia overnight. South Korea's Kospi fell 8%, and Japan's Nikkei fell 5%, showing this fear reached well beyond crypto.

Keep reading — what to watch

Will the Fed actually raise rates this month? That's still unknown — markets are reacting to odds, not a decision. If the Fed holds steady instead, today's selloff could reverse just as fast as it happened. For now, anyone holding leveraged crypto bets is watching the same economic data everyone else is. That means inflation reports, jobs numbers, and whatever the Fed says next.