Bitcoin (BTC) Long Liquidations Reach $112 Million After Hot August CPI

Long Liquidations Top $111 Million

Bitcoin (BTC) failed in its latest attempt to break above $80,000 and has since been pushed back into the $77,000 range, with a hotter-than-expected US inflation print now pressing on an already extended derivatives market. Liquidations across Bitcoin markets over the past 24 hours totaled roughly $121.3 million, and more than 90% of that — $111.9 million — came from long positions, confirming that the first wave of leveraged long cleanup has materialized. This matters for anyone tracking the broader Bitcoin cycle, because futures open interest has come down from last week's peak — when OI exceeded 110,000 BTC as price hovered around $80,000 — to roughly 106,700 BTC, or about $52.9 billion. Because price and OI fell together, the move reads less like aggressive new shorting and more like existing longs unwinding. Positioning has not fully reset, though: OI-weighted funding remains positive near 0.006%, and the long/short ratio on Binance and OKX accounts still sits above 1, meaning traders remain tilted bullish despite the drop. The spot side is the weak link — cumulative volume delta keeps fading, so futures-led bounces near $77,000 lack durable spot demand behind them.

The macro overlay worsened the picture. August CPI, released September 11, rose 3.4% year-on-year, while core CPI climbed 0.3% month-on-month and topped forecasts; the implied probability of a Federal Reserve rate hike at the next meeting jumped from 72% to 87% in a single day. With Brent crude near $104 a barrel and WTI holding the $100 line on Middle East supply disruption, the week's central question is now whether $75,000 holds.

Prediction Markets Price Sub-$75,000 Risk

Thursday's session closed near $76,500, a 2.23% daily decline and the steepest drop of the past 14 days, leaving BTC roughly 7% below the monthly high of $82,280 printed on Coinbase on September 4, after four straight red daily candles. What stands out in our reading of the derivatives data is what has not happened: open interest fell from $57 billion to about $53.4 billion between September 4 and 6, then held near $53 billion for four consecutive sessions. The leverage washout was therefore partial, not total — a structure that cushions price somewhat in the near term but leaves the market exposed to cascading forced liquidations if the decline accelerates. Energy markets offer a partial offset. The crude futures curve slopes downward — October at $98.88, December near $90, January around $87 and June 2027 near $75 — signaling traders view the current oil shock as temporary, and the IEA has trimmed its oil demand outlook on exactly that logic. Prediction markets, however, lean defensive: Polymarket now assigns a 64% probability to BTC trading below $75,000 during September, while the odds of reaching $85,000 have fallen to 38%. Traders mapping longer horizons — see our Bitcoin Rainbow Chart guide for one cycle reference — will recognize the pattern of post-peak lower highs. Our earlier analysis of gold's head-and-shoulders setup ahead of the CPI print flagged this macro window well in advance.

ETF Inflows Meet Rising Exchange Supply

The CPI print itself triggered whipsaw rather than direction: BTC briefly dropped to about $76,700, snapped back toward $80,000 in a move amplified by short covering, then settled back into the $77,000 range. Beneath the chop, two opposing flows define the week. On the demand side, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a third consecutive week of net inflows, and corporate and long-term buyers — the cohort that tends to HODL through volatility — have kept accumulating, a sign institutions have not staged a coordinated exit. Coverage of Morgan Stanley's MSBT ETF receiving 51.58 BTC via Coinbase Prime shows that institutional channel remains active. On the supply side, spot demand is softening and exchange inflows are building: Binance's BTC reserves have climbed to a roughly two-year high, stacking sellable supply at exactly the moment buyers hesitate — a dynamic that matters most for whale-sized holders deciding whether to distribute. The macro backdrop does neither side any favors: PPI accelerated to 5.4% year-on-year, the ECB delivered a rate hike, and the 10-year Treasury yield approached 5%, reinforcing the oil-to-inflation-to-rates transmission channel. Behaviorally, the market has rotated from late-August FOMO back to wait-and-see, with investors trimming exposure into the print rather than adding risk. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on MEXC.

The $75,000 Test Ahead

COINOTAG's aggregate market data still shows sentiment at 63/100 (Greed) and BTC holding 68.0% of our tracked universe, with total tracked market cap near $2.28 trillion. That reading suggests positioning remains complacent into the FOMC; until spot demand confirms, the $75,000 line is where that complacency gets tested.