Bitcoin Drops Below $73,000 Amid Federal Reserve Pressures and Market Unwinds

Bitcoin fell below $73,000 on Thursday, November 12, 2026, hitting its weakest level since August 20 as a combination of inflation concerns, macroeconomic unwinds, and heavy liquidations rippled through the digital asset market. El-Balad.com and Mogaz reported that Bitcoin touched $72,735 on Binance, putting the asset down 9.4% from its November 4 close when it traded at $72,969.

What caused the sharp drop in cryptocurrency prices?

The November 2026 sell-off was triggered by a sequence of macroeconomic pressures rather than a single event, according to El-Balad.com and Mogaz. A hot inflation report raised expectations of a December Federal Reserve interest rate hike, weighing heavily on risk assets. This followed a previous FOMC cycle on October 28, 2026, where the Federal Reserve held rates steady at 3.75%-4%, during which Bitcoin had surged to an intraday peak of $81,687 before retreating to around $81,000, as reported by Bitcoin.com. Additionally, geopolitical and corporate headlines on Monday, November 9, including stalled U.S.-Iran talks and reports of a probe involving Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, compounded market jitters. Further pressuring the market, MSCI announced it would drop Strategy from its stock indexes, and Nvidia shares fell 9% on Wednesday, November 11, as its board weighed removing Huang, according to Mogaz. Meanwhile, a Forbes search snippet noted separate fears regarding an artificial intelligence-fueled crash and warnings influencing price action toward the $70,000 threshold.

How severe were the trading liquidations?

Over-leveraged long positions suffered cascading liquidations over consecutive sessions at the start of the week. El-Balad.com and Mogaz reported the following liquidation figures:

• Monday, November 9, 2026: Over $1.15 billion total liquidated, with approximately $1.04 billion coming from long positions.
• Tuesday, November 10, 2026: An additional $723 million liquidated, with roughly $570 million driven by longs.

On OKX, longs significantly outnumbered shorts by a ratio of 3.11 to 1, up from 2.43 on November 4. Over a 24-hour window, OKX futures data showed longs lost $27.6 million while shorts lost $12.3 million, with open interest holding flat at $3.85 billion and funding rates staying positive at 0.0092% every eight hours.

How are other digital assets and institutional products performing?

Broader altcoin markets suffered steeper double-digit losses over a seven-day period, and institutional products faced sustained capital outflows. According to El-Balad.com and Mogaz, Ethereum lost 16.4%, Solana dropped 14.7%, and XRP fell 21.3%. CoinGecko data cited in the same reports put the total cryptocurrency market valuation at $2.42 trillion on November 12, with Bitcoin accounting for 60.5% of that total. In the institutional space, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw investors pull about $1.88 billion during the first eight trading days of November.

What comes next for the market?

Downward pressure could continue if Bitcoin loses key support levels, which risks triggering another round of forced selling due to persistent high leverage and crowded long positions, according to El-Balad.com and Mogaz.