Bitcoin Falls Below $70,000 for First Time Since August as $1.3 Billion in Crypto Bets Are Liquidated

Bitcoin fell below $70,000 on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, for the first time since mid-August, as a stronger U.S. dollar, rising bond yields and the forced closing of leveraged bets extended a weeklong slide across digital asset markets. The largest cryptocurrency dropped as low as $67,652, a decline of more than 3.5% over 24 hours and about 16% over the past month, CoinDesk reported.

The move took bitcoin to its lowest level since Aug. 19, according to CoinDesk data, and left it down about 17% so far in the fourth quarter, erasing a large part of the rally of the preceding three months. Bitcoin was trading at $68,607 at one point on Friday, down 9.2% over the past week, Cointelegraph reported, citing CoinGecko.

Other tokens follow

The selling spread across the market. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, fell below $2,000 for the first time since August, XRP traded near $1 and Solana's SOL dropped below $80, CoinDesk said. Several smaller tokens, including GT, Stacks and Monero, lost 7% or more.

$1.3 billion in liquidations

Exchanges liquidated more than $1.3 billion of cryptocurrency futures positions over 24 hours, with bitcoin accounting for $677 million, according to Coinglass data cited by CoinDesk. Nearly $500 million of those liquidations occurred as bitcoin crossed below $70,000. The largest single liquidated position, a bullish bitcoin bet on the decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid, was worth more than $31 million.

Liquidations happen when an exchange forcibly closes a leveraged position after losses have depleted the trader's margin. "Bitcoin's drop below $69,000 was directly triggered by a concentrated liquidation of leveraged long positions," Tim Sun, senior analyst at HashKey, told Decrypt. "Though the deeper issue lies in steadily weakening market demand."

Bitcoin's average perpetual futures funding rate across exchanges turned negative for the first time in a month as the price fell to around $68,500, according to Glassnode data cited by CoinDesk, meaning traders holding short positions were paying those holding longs. The price also slipped below bitcoin's 200-week moving average of about $68,000.

Dollar, yields and the Fed

The decline coincided with the U.S. dollar index trading above 103, its highest since April 2025. CoinDesk said the index has risen nearly 2% since early October as expectations of Federal Reserve rate increases have strengthened, and the odds of a half-point Fed hike in December rose after a hotter-than-expected October consumer price index report earlier in the week. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield stood at 5.125% and the 30-year yield at 5.459%, CoinDesk reported.

The sell-off also accelerated amid reports of renewed military escalation in the Middle East, including a claim by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that it destroyed a U.S. early-warning radar in Bahrain, according to CoinDesk.

In a report on Friday, 10x Research said bitcoin fell 5.9% between Nov. 5 and Nov. 12 while the Nasdaq 100 gained 6.4%, suggesting the cryptocurrency was responding more to rising Treasury yields and a stronger dollar than to technology stocks, Cointelegraph reported. The firm said bitcoin was trading more closely with gold, which fell 5.5% over the same period.

ETF outflows and thin liquidity

The decline follows sustained withdrawals from U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust recorded more than $2 billion of net outflows across nine consecutive trading sessions through Wednesday, and preliminary Farside Investors data showed a further $47.7 million of net outflows across the funds on Thursday, with figures for BlackRock and Fidelity still pending, according to Cointelegraph.

HashKey's Sun pointed to six consecutive days of net outflows from U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, a shrinking stablecoin supply and index provider MSCI's decision to remove bitcoin holder Strategy from its indexes. "ETFs, stablecoin liquidity, and corporate treasuries have served as the primary capital pillars supporting this Bitcoin rally," he told Decrypt. "With all three coming under simultaneous pressure, the market is losing the marginal buying power that previously propelled prices higher."

Institutional trading platform Talos said bitcoin order-book depth across major exchanges fell to $72 million on Nov. 9, roughly 33% below normal levels. "Liquidity remains thin while leverage stays elevated, leaving the market vulnerable to sharp moves in either direction," Talos senior research associate Tanay Ved said, according to Cointelegraph.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index dropped to 20 on Friday, its lowest reading since July 8, placing it in "extreme fear" territory.