Bitcoin dropped 2.01% in 24 hours to trade around $61,814 as macroeconomic headwinds crushed risk appetite across digital assets. The catalyst was a hotter-than-expected PCE inflation reading that signaled the Fed's inflation fight is far from over, yanking the rug out from under traders betting on rate cuts.
When the inflation number landed above expectations, it reset the entire macro calculus. Bitcoin and ethereum both hit multi-month lows. The selling wasn't surgical either. Heavy institutional redemptions kicked off, then derivatives liquidations cascaded through the system, compounding the downward spiral.
Crypto's sensitivity to macro data has sharpened over the past two years as institutional capital poured in. Bitcoin now trades more like a high-beta risk asset than a macro hedge. When equities tank on inflation fears, crypto follows hard. When real yields spike on inflation data, crypto bleeds. That structural coupling used to be looser.
The 4.1% PCE figure matters because it's the Fed's preferred inflation gauge. A reading above consensus expectations signals that disinflation stalled. That kills the narrative around imminent rate cuts, which had propped up risk appetite for months. Without that tailwind, leveraged positions in crypto become expensive to hold and dangerous to carry into volatility.