Crypto Falls as Hot October CPI Lifts December Rate-Hike Odds

Crypto slipped again on Wednesday. Bitcoin traded below $73,000 after October US consumer prices ran hotter than economists expected. A third straight session of US spot ETF outflows left the market without a bid.

Bitcoin traded around $73,715 on Wednesday morning, 1.2% lower than the previous day, with its 24-hour range running from $72,744 to $74,896, according to CoinGecko. The wider market shed another $40 billion in a day, to a total crypto market cap of $2.450 trillion on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin's share of it edged up to 60.5%.

• The news: Crypto traded lower after October CPI came in above expectations, and bitcoin sat below $73,000, near a three-month low.
• Key figure: US spot bitcoin ETFs lost $201 million on November 9, a third straight session of redemptions, per SoSoValue.
• What's next: October PPI is due November 13, the same day an AZTEC token unlock releases tokens equal to 31.81% of circulating supply.

October CPI: 0.4% Versus 0.3% Expected

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in October on a seasonally adjusted basis. That followed a 0.6% climb in September. Core CPI, which strips out food and energy, rose 0.3%, matching its pace in September and August.

Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected 0.3% for the headline figure and 0.2% for core prices. Both landed a tenth of a point hot. Yields moved with it: the two-year Treasury yield rose about 18 basis points to 4.73%, while the ten-year approached 5%.

Bitcoin ETFs: A Third Day of Outflows

US spot bitcoin ETFs lost about $201 million on Monday, November 9, their third consecutive session of redemptions, according to SoSoValue. BlackRock's IBIT shed $213.23 million on its own, more than the whole group's net figure. ARK 21Shares' ARKB lost $9.91 million, and Morgan Stanley's MSBT took in $22 million, per Farside Investors' data.

IBIT has now redeemed shares for seven trading days in a row, $1.66 billion in total since October 30. Year to date, the US spot bitcoin funds stand at net outflows of $1.1 billion. They had gathered around $25 billion each by early November in both 2024 and 2025.

The ether side matched the direction. US spot ether funds saw around $185 million of outflows on the same Monday, their largest daily outflow since October 6, per SoSoValue.

Loss-Linked Selling and the $73,000 Line

CryptoQuant recorded 47,025 BTC sent by short-term holders to exchanges in a 24-hour window. The coins moved at a loss, the third-highest such total since late July. Bitcoin traded around $72,670, its lowest level since August 20, when those transfers were observed. It sat below the short-term holder cost basis that CryptoQuant put at $75,691 on Monday.

CryptoQuant research head Julio Moreno flagged $73,000 as a decision point. A sustained break below it, followed by a failed retest, would strengthen the bear-market continuation scenario.

Waller Keeps a December Hike on the Table

Fed Governor Christopher Waller spoke at the Bank of England Watchers Conference in London. "I would still support a 25 basis point increase in the FOMC's policy rate at our December meeting," he said.

Odds of a 25-basis-point increase on December 9 jumped from 76.3% to 96.3% after his remarks, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

Altcoins: Zcash Leads the Decline

Zcash was the worst performer of the past 24 hours, down 13% and below $1,000. Its community published a vision for the January 2027 NU8 upgrade, which would raise block size to 8 MB and launch the Tachyon shielded pool.

XRP traded around $1.06. Its cumulative funding rate on Binance stood at 0.18% over 30 days, the highest since October 2025. OKX open interest, the value of outstanding futures contracts, fell 23%. It dropped from $132.1 million on November 4 to $101.9 million on November 10. The account long/short ratio on OKX was 3.70 on Tuesday, down from 4.27 on Sunday.

Update (11 November): The Crypto Fear & Greed Index stood at 29 on Wednesday, down from 32 a day earlier. Santiment counted around 108,700 bitcoin addresses holding a balance lost since October 16.

Not everything fell. ICP rose 8.1% over 24 hours after DFINITY said its Cloud Engines product would launch that week. INIT rose about 15% despite an attack that halted its Layer 1 network, helped by speculative trading and a short squeeze. GRAM added nearly 8% on about $130 million of volume after the Telegram founder disclosed more than 700,000 new self-custodial wallets in 48 hours.

What to Watch: PPI, Unlocks and the $73,000 Line

An ALLO token unlock on November 11 releases tokens equal to 88.51% of circulating supply, worth about $26.42 million. US October PPI follows on November 13, the same day an AZTEC unlock adds tokens equal to 31.81% of circulating supply, worth about $10.3 million.

The level that decides the near term is the one Moreno named. A sustained break below $73,000 that fails its retest keeps the bear-market continuation case live. A reclaim of it removes the condition.