Bitcoin Pinned Below $80K as $400M Liquidation Wave Crushes Leveraged Longs!

Bitcoin is trading around $79,800 after sliding as low as $78,720 on Wednesday, still unable to reclaim its weekly open of $82,500. The catalyst: a hotter-than-expected U.S. Producer Price Index print of 6% year-over-year — the highest since 2022 — that triggered a broad risk-off move and wiped out leveraged bullish bets positioned for a breakout above the 200-day moving average near $82,000.

Derivatives markets bore the brunt. Total liquidations surged 68% to nearly $400 million, with $102 million of the $117 million in BTC liquidations coming from long positions. Ethereum open interest hit a record 15.42 million tokens, while the OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta across the top 25 coins remains negative — a signal that sell orders are dominating across the board.

Altcoins took the sharpest hits. The CoinDesk Memecoin Select Index dropped over 10% in 24 hours, 75 of the top 100…