$18M Bitcoin Longs Liquidated In 35 Mins As US CPI Hits 9.1%

U.S. consumer inflation hit a 40-year high of 9.1% on Wednesday sending cryptocurrency markets plummeting briefly.

What Happened: According to data from Benzinga Pro, Bitcoin BTC/USD plunged from $19,898 to a low of $18,999 after the numbers were released.

The immediate aftermath of the sudden and sharp decline was a series of cascading BTC long liquidations. According to on-chain liquidation data from CoinGlass, $17.6 million Bitcoin longs were liquidated within 60 minutes of the negative price action.

Bitcoin reversed much of the negative price action brought about by the inflation data in the hours that followed. The leading digital asset reclaimed the $20,000 price level, rising 5% over 24 hours.

This price reversal subsequently led to another set of liquidations over a 60-minute time frame — this time with $10.45 million worth of shorts liquidated.

Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, at press time, Bitcoin was trading at $20,125. Ethereum ETH/USD was trading at $1,107 and Dogecoin DOGE/USD was trading at $0.06.

Photo via Igor Batrakov on Shutterstock