Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Dogecoin declined on Wednesday as higher-than-expected consumer inflation raised rate hike odds. Bitcoin dropped from $83,000 into the low $81,000s. Ethereum fell below $2,400. The global cryptocurrency market capitalization contracted by 2.20% in the last 24 hours to $2.84 trillion.
Coinglass data showed over $450 million in cryptocurrency liquidations in the last 24 hours. Coinglass data showed that almost $400 million of those liquidations involved bullish long positions. Bitcoin's open interest increased 1.41% over the last 24 hours. Rising open interest alongside a falling asset price typically indicates that short sellers are entering the market and selling contracts.
Cryptocurrency-linked stocks also fell sharply. Strategy Inc. closed down 5.87%. Bitmine Immersion Technologies Inc. closed down 5.28%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 48.62 points, or 0.09%, to close at 51,621.48 on Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 1.11% to 7,718.94. The Nasdaq Composite declined 1.88% to 26,692.87.
Consumer Price Index inflation rose from 3.4% to 3.7% year over year in September, above economists' expectation of 3.6%. Core CPI inflation also exceeded expectations at 2.6%. The CME FedWatch tool showed that investors still assigned a 75% probability to unchanged interest rates in October. The CME FedWatch tool put the probability of a quarter-point rate cut in December at 66%.
However, on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant reported that most analysts were bullish on Bitcoin, citing CryptoQuant's Analyst Consensus Index. CryptoQuant said 84% of 164 analysts were bullish, up from 37% in July. CryptoQuant said the bullish share exceeded the level at the same stage of the 2023 bull market, after half the price gain.
Trader and chartist Daan Crypto Trades said Bitcoin had remained range-bound around a major horizontal support and resistance level near $82,000 for roughly 50 days. Daan Crypto Trades described choppy intraday trading and compared the period with similarly choppy conditions last quarter in July. Daan Crypto Trades predicted a decisive price breakout and renewed movement soon.