Bitcoin Slips Back Toward $74,000 as Hot CPI Clouds the Fed’s Rate Path
Bitcoin extended its pullback from last week’s bounce above $80,000, trading in the mid-$70,000s Tuesday as a hotter-than-expected October inflation report and hawkish Fed commentary added fresh pressure to an already cautious crypto market.
Bitcoin traded in a roughly $74,000-to-$75,500 range Tuesday, according to multiple crypto-market trackers, continuing its retreat from a bounce above $80,000 earlier this month and from the two-month low near $73,650 it touched over the weekend after breaking below its 50-week moving average. Ether changed hands around $2,100 to $2,135, down roughly 1% to 2% over 24 hours, while Avalanche bucked the broader weakness, rising 7% to 8% on news that the New York Stock Exchange selected the network for a tokenized-securities platform. Bitcoin’s dominance of total crypto market value stood near 58%, and the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a sentiment gauge based on volatility, momentum, and social-media activity, read 32 — still in “fear” territory, though up modestly from 29 the day before.
The Same Catalyst Hitting Stocks Is Hitting Crypto
Tuesday’s weakness traces to the same report rattling equity markets: October’s Consumer Price Index data, released at 8:30 a.m. ET, came in hotter than expected, with core inflation rising 0.3% for a third straight month against a 0.2% forecast. Hours earlier, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said that if core prices kept running at that pace, “a 50 basis point hike in the policy rate should be considered at the December meeting” — a sharply more hawkish signal than markets had been pricing heading into the print. Crypto traders had already been bracing for the report: ahead of its release, derivatives markets had priced in roughly 80% odds of some form of Fed rate hike in December, and the hot data plus Waller’s remarks pushed those odds higher still, adding to the risk-off tone that has weighed on digital assets since last week.
ETF Outflows Still Haven’t Turned
Compounding the pressure, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs logged $1.28 billion in net outflows for the week ended November 7, the largest weekly outflow since late June, with BlackRock’s IBIT alone shedding roughly $403 million in a single session. That selling has yet to meaningfully reverse, and the combination of a hawkish Fed and persistent ETF redemptions marks a notable shift from the risk appetite that drove Bitcoin’s short-covering rally back above $80,000 just weeks earlier. Bitmine’s Tom Lee, discussing the broader market pullback, has attributed recent softness in Ether and other majors more to trader impatience than to any deterioration in underlying fundamentals.
Why It Matters
A genuinely hawkish pivot at the Fed — from talk of cuts a year ago to Waller now floating a half-point hike — raises borrowing costs across the economy and tends to pressure speculative, rate-sensitive assets like crypto and the miners that depend on cheap power and capital, a dynamic FactSheets tracks on its Big Digital Energy (BGDE) fact sheet. See FactSheets’ full write-up on today’s CPI report and Waller’s rate-hike comments, its earlier coverage of Bitcoin’s break below its 50-week moving average, browse the full roster of covered names on the Stock Fact Sheets hub, and follow ongoing coverage on FactSheets’ Crypto and Market categories.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and figures cited above reflect levels reported the morning of November 10, 2026, which are subject to rapid change; always do your own research or consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.
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