Bitcoin slips below $100,000 as total crypto liquidations hit $463 million

Bitcoin’s price dropped below the psychologically important threshold of $100,000 for the third time this month on Thursday as total crypto liquidations reached $463 million in the past 24 hours.

The cryptocurrency was changing hands at $98,841.86 as of 1:34 p.m. ET, hours after The Block published a note where JPMorgan analysts said they see the support price for BTC at around $94,000. Bitcoin was down over 2% as of Thursday afternoon.

Data shows that of the total liquidations across digital assets, $342 million came from long positions, according to CoinGlass. Meanwhile, bitcoin spot ETFs shed roughly $278 million on Wednesday.

JPMorgan analysts said in their note from Wednesday that bitcoin’s estimated production cost — which has historically acted as a floor or support price — has risen to roughly $94,000 from a recent estimate of about $92,000. A steep rise in bitcoin network difficulty over the past couple of months has increased estimated production costs.

Bitcoin is not the only crypto asset to fall on Thursday. Other majors like Ethereum and Solana are down about 6%, according to The Block’s data, while crypto-related equities are also taking a beating. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index is down by 2.45% at publication time, while the S&P 500 is down 1.56%.

Rate cut odds fall

From a macro perspective, The Coin Bureau co-founder and analyst Nic Puckrin suggested Thursday morning that both the looming effects of the government shutdown and decreased chances of a rate cut could weigh on bitcoin’s price.

“Today was supposed to see the delayed release of the U.S. CPI report from October, but instead it appears the government shutdown has created a black hole in the flow of federal data,” he said. “So it’s no wonder we’ve seen the odds of a December rate cut fall sharply.”

“As the most uncertain FOMC meeting of the year looms, we could see a further flight to safety and defensive assets,” Puckrin added. “Traders would do well to stay on their toes in the next few weeks, especially if they’re allocating to high-risk assets like Bitcoin.”