Bitcoin (BTC) faced significant selling pressure during Asian trading hours on Thursday, dropping below $81,000 as broader risk-off sentiment weighed on regional equities. The cryptocurrency fell 3.6% over the past 24 hours to $80,764 as of 11:50 p.m. ET Wednesday, while ether (ETH) declined 6.5% to $2,353. Among the top 10 cryptocurrencies, Zcash saw the steepest loss, trading down 12.8% at $1,101, followed by Solana at 4.8% and XRP at 4.7%.
Asian equities also experienced a sharp decline, with South Korea's Kospi sliding 8% in the morning session, led by losses in chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, both down over 9%. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 5.2%. The sell-off mirrored overnight losses on Wall Street after the latest U.S. inflation data showed core CPI rising more than expected, raising concerns about the Federal Reserve's interest rate outlook.
Analyst Dominick John of Zeus Research told The Block that the declines in both Asian equities and crypto markets reflected a broader risk-off move, driven by weakness in U.S. tech stocks rather than a direct causal relationship. He noted that U.S. inflation rising to 3.7% reignited fears of prolonged higher interest rates, putting pressure on risk assets.
Crypto liquidations surged to $951.4 million over the past 24 hours, with $876.3 million of those being long positions, according to CoinGlass data.