Bitcoin Falls Below $84,000 as Strong U.S. Data Spurs Selling

Bitcoin fell below $84,000 on Sept. 24 as concerns over additional U.S. rate hikes and a wave of forced liquidations weighed on the market.

As of 11:08 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 24, Bitcoin was trading at $83,793.62 on Binance's USDT market, down 2.84% from a day earlier. On Upbit's won market, it was trading at 115,223,000 won, down 0.61% from the previous day.

Major altcoins also declined. Ether was trading at $2,666.05 on Binance's USDT market, down 3.09% from a day earlier. XRP fell 5.98% to $1.48, while Solana dropped 3.34% to $114.11.

The decline came after stronger-than-expected U.S. economic data fueled concerns about further rate hikes. S&P Global said on Sept. 23 that its preliminary U.S. composite purchasing managers' index for September rose to 58.4, the highest level in more than five years. The services PMI came in at 58.7 and the manufacturing PMI at 57, both above market expectations.

Inflation concerns also intensified after companies' input costs rose at the fastest pace in four years. U.S. Treasury yields jumped, damping appetite for risk assets. In the crypto market, heavy liquidations of leveraged long positions added to the downward pressure.

CoinGlass data showed that $135.8 million worth of crypto positions was liquidated in the hour after the economic data was released. Long positions accounted for $125.9 million of that total. Liquidations in Bitcoin and Ether came to $47.4 million and $23.9 million, respectively.

Over the past 24 hours, total liquidations across the crypto market reached $510 million, affecting 122,256 traders. Long liquidations alone totaled $363.83 million. Bitcoin had earlier climbed to around $87,000 on short-covering, but surrendered those gains as long positions were liquidated in bulk.