Traders are dumping risky assets and crypto is getting dragged down with it. The whole market shed 2% in a day, landing at $2.11 trillion. And it’s not just crypto, stocks and other traditional markets are bleeding too.
Bitcoin lost 3%. Ethereum gave up 5%. Solana and XRP each dropped about 4%. In one hour alone, leveraged long positions worth over $450 million got vaporized. The BTC price plunged to $59k, its lowest mark in 21 months, after cutting straight through $60,000 like butter.
In the past day, $1.265 billion in positions got erased. Over 209,000 traders took hits. And now there’s growing worry that Bitcoin could slide to $55,000 next.
What you'll learn 👉
Bitcoin Price Drops as Liquidations Trigger Market-Wide Selloff
This crash started with forced selling. Once Bitcoin broke under $60,000, liquidations snowballed fast. In just the first hour, over $104 million in Bitcoin long positions got erased, and total liquidations hit $430 million.
BREAKING: US inflation just came in at 3-year high, and the Fed has almost no room left to cut rates.
— Bull Theory (@BullTheoryio) June 25, 2026
The PCE Price Index, the Fed's main inflation gauge, rose 4.1% year over year in May, up from 3.8% the month before.
That's the wrong direction, and still more than double the… pic.twitter.com/uvLZnWsDqB
It all happened in a hurry. Bitcoin went from above $61,000 to $58,000 in about an hour. That tripped a domino effect. Ethereum, Solana, XRP, everything fell along with it. Traders bailed out, and risk managers shut down positions left and right.
But crypto wasn’t the only one hurting. Digital assets move with the S&P 500 about 63% of the time. So when stocks get shaky, crypto catches the same cold. That connection was obvious when the Nasdaq 100 erased its gains and fell over 2% in thirty minutes.
The pressure intensified after Apple delivered another shock to investors. Shares of Apple fell 5% after the company announced price hikes, wiping roughly $215 billion from its market capitalization in a single session. The decline weighed heavily on the broader technology sector and added to the risk-off environment that was already pushing the BTC price and other cryptocurrencies lower.
Inflation Shock Crushes Hopes for Fed Rate Cuts
Macroeconomic data delivered another blow to investor confidence. New inflation numbers came out. The PCE Price Index, that’s the Fed’s main measure, hit 4.1% in May, up from 3.8% last time. That’s over double the Fed’s 2% goal. And it’s moving in the wrong direction.
🚨 THE FED CAN'T CUT NOW EVEN IF IT WANTED TO
— Merlijn The Trader (@MerlijnTrader) June 25, 2026
PCE inflation just spiked to 4.1%. Core to 3.4%.
Both multi-year highs.
Normally the Fed cuts when growth slows.
But GDP beat expectations at 2.1%, and jobs are strengthening.
Hot economy. Hot inflation. No room to ease.
Hikes… pic.twitter.com/zkOGU9YDJB
Also, the economy keeps holding up. First-quarter GDP landed at 2.1%, better than the 1.6% people expected. Jobless claims came in at 215,000, lower than the 225,000 forecast. Consumer spending rose 0.7% in May, beating the 0.6% estimate. And core durable goods orders went up 1.3%.
All this has killed hopes for rate cuts anytime soon. Now traders are bracing for rates to stay high for a long time, some people are even talking about hikes again. That’s bad news for speculative stuff like crypto, and the market is feeling that pinch.
Related Bitcoin News: Peter Schiff Slams Bitcoin Again: “Cheap” Means Nothing Without Earnings or Yield
Bitcoin Options Expiry Adds More Pressure
Another major factor weighing on sentiment is Friday’s large Bitcoin options expiry. About $10 billion in Bitcoin options contracts are expiring on Deribit, the biggest crypto options exchange out there.
Most of those positions were bullish, people betting on Bitcoin climbing back to its old highs. That didn’t happen. Prices dropped instead, leaving a ton of those contracts worthless.
Bitcoin Faces $10 Billion Options Expiry in Fresh Selloff Test
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 25, 2026
Bloomberg reported that Bitcoin is facing a roughly USD 10 billion options expiry that could add pressure to a market already hit by cooling institutional demand and macro headwinds. About USD 10 billion in Bitcoin… pic.twitter.com/fDZSEdJpvm
As expiration nears, traders start moving money around, closing losing bets, or adjusting their positions. And that usually adds more fuel to the fire.
Everyone is watching to see if options activity pushes prices down any further. With Bitcoin already trading near multi-year lows, any increase in defensive positioning could create another wave of downside volatility.
Crypto Venture Capital Activity Falls to Six-Year Low
Investor participation has also weakened beneath the surface. Numbers from CryptoRank show that only 651 active crypto investors were around in the second quarter of 2026. That’s way down from the 2022 peak of 2,564, and it’s not much higher than where we were back in 2020.
The Number of Crypto VC Has Fallen to a Six-Year Low
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 25, 2026
According to CryptoRank, in Q2 2026 the number of active global crypto investors (mainly institutional or VC participants) fell to 651, far below the 2022 ATH of 2564. The figure is only slightly above 2020 levels, when… pic.twitter.com/BXWxyY4bWB
What that tells you is the market is shrinking down to a smaller crowd of pro players. Fewer people means less new money coming in. So when things get rough, there’s less cushion to catch the fall, and bouncing back gets a whole lot harder.
However, a few things are hitting crypto all at once, liquidations piling up, inflation creeping higher, no rate cuts in sight, a big Bitcoin options expiration, and fewer people trading overall. All of that has knocked risk appetite down in both crypto and regular markets.
For Bitcoin, the big question is whether buyers can hold the line above $55,000. If the bigger economic picture stays rough and sellers keep pushing, we could be in for more wild swings before things settle down.
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for daily crypto updates, market insights, and expert analysis.
