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Bitcoin got crushed Thursday. The price slid to around $58,000 — its lowest print since September 2024 — after U.S. inflation data came in hotter than anyone wanted to see, basically killing whatever was left of the rate-cut trade for 2025.
The trigger was the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge. PCE jumped 4.1% year-over-year in May, the highest reading since April 2023 and well above the 3.8% pace clocked in April. Strip out food and energy, and the core PCE still came in at 3.4%. Not the kind of numbers that give a central bank room to ease. Consumer spending rose 0.7% in May — defying predictions — and first-quarter GDP got revised up from 1.6% to 2.1%. The economy isn’t slowing. Some economists are now talking about rate hikes rather than cuts, which is pretty much the worst scenario for risk assets.
Not great timing for crypto bulls.
Fed Holds Firm, Traders Rethink Everything
Under Chair Kevin Warsh, the Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate between 3.5% and 3.75% at the June meeting. The Fed flagged possible rate increases ahead, pointing to energy supply shocks tied to Middle Eastern conflicts as an ongoing concern. Traders who spent months pricing in easing this year are now scrambling to reprice. Higher rates mean higher costs for holding risk assets — Bitcoin included — and the market moved fast once the data hit.
Bitcoin was trading above $61,800 earlier Thursday. The drop picked up momentum through the session and the coin was hovering near $59,200, down 2.6% on the day, before sliding further toward $58,000. That kind of move in a few hours is rough on its own. What made it worse was the leverage sitting in the market.
Over $450 million in leveraged long positions got liquidated in roughly an hour. That’s not a slow bleed — that’s a cascade. Forced selling feeds more forced selling, and the chart showed it.
$1.26 Billion Gone in 24 Hours
Total crypto liquidations hit $1.26 billion across more than 209,000 traders in the 24-hour window, per Coinglass data. That’s a lot of accounts getting margin-called simultaneously. The scale of it — more than 200,000 traders — gives you a sense of how widely leveraged the market was heading into this print.
And it wasn’t just crypto. The Nasdaq 100 also reversed intraday gains and sold off, mirroring a broader tech selloff that had already dragged Bitcoin lower earlier in June. The correlation between crypto and tech stocks has been tight this year. When rate expectations shift, both sectors feel it at roughly the same time, and Thursday was a clean example of that dynamic playing out in real time.
Bitcoin is now sitting approximately 53% below its October 2025 peak of $126,080. That’s a significant drawdown by any measure. Whether $58,000 holds as a floor probably depends on what the Fed signals at its late July meeting.
With inflation running hot and the economy growing faster than expected, policymakers have little reason to cut. That’s the bind. Rising prices and stable growth don’t push the Fed toward easing — they push toward patience, or worse, tightening. Risk assets don’t do well in that environment.
What Traders Are Watching Now
The July Fed meeting is the next real catalyst. If policymakers signal any openness to cuts — or at least rule out hikes — that could stabilize things. But the May data makes that harder to argue. Energy supply disruptions from ongoing geopolitical tensions are still feeding into prices, and the Fed has said so explicitly.
Leveraged traders got a painful reminder Thursday of how fast things can move. More than $450 million gone in an hour isn’t a statistic — it’s accounts blown out, stops hit, positions closed at the worst possible prices. The broader $1.26 billion figure across 209,000 traders captures the full scope of the damage.
Bitcoin’s drop also came at a moment when the market had been rebuilding some confidence after earlier June weakness. That recovery is now basically erased. The coin is back near levels not seen since last fall, and the macro backdrop hasn’t gotten friendlier.
Tech stocks and crypto both remain sensitive to the same set of inputs right now — inflation prints, Fed language, rate expectations. Until one of those inputs changes in a meaningful way, the volatility probably isn’t going anywhere.
The Fed’s late July meeting puts a hard date on when the next big signal arrives. Between now and then, $58,000 is the number everyone’s watching.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Bitcoin fall to $58,000 on Thursday?
Bitcoin dropped after U.S. PCE inflation data for May came in at 4.1% year-over-year, well above April’s 3.8% reading, cutting expectations for near-term Federal Reserve rate cuts and triggering a broad risk-asset selloff.
How large were total crypto liquidations in the 24-hour period?
Total crypto liquidations reached $1.26 billion across more than 209,000 traders within 24 hours, per Coinglass data, including over $450 million in leveraged long positions wiped out in roughly one hour.
