Bitcoin Price Eases After Record, Crypto Market Tracks Fed Outlook

Bitcoin reversed hard Monday, tumbling back toward the mid‑six figures after last week's stride to a fresh peak. The largest crypto was quoted around $115,255.70 after printing an all‑time high near $124,496 last week - its fourth record of the year - and briefly sliding as low as $114,706.

It wasn't just a single bad print. A chunk of the move was mechanical: a wave of forced liquidations swept the market after weaker‑than‑hoped macro data raised doubts about a September Federal Reserve rate cut.

Coin Metrics' tally showed liquidations totaling about $552.58 million across 131,455 traders in the past 24 hours, including roughly $123 million in long bitcoin positions and about $178 million in long ether positions. When margin calls hit, positions get closed at market, and that pressure amplifies the slide.

Ether didn't escape the spillover. After flirting with an upside target near $4,800 last week, ether dropped to roughly $4,283.15, down about 4% on the day. The wider crypto benchmark - the CoinDesk 20 - was off about 3.7% as blue‑chip tokens rolled over.

July wholesale inflation printed hotter than expected, which pushed traders to rethink the timing of Fed easing. That, combined with the still‑fresh headlines around industry collapses from prior years and ongoing regulatory chatter, nudged risk‑on flows the other way.

There was also policy noise. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clarified that the strategic bitcoin reserve set up by President Donald Trump in March will be limited to coins forfeited to the federal government, even as the administration looks at "budget‑neutral pathways" to add more bitcoin. That nuance disappointed some who'd read the policy as a broader government accumulation play.

Cash flows into crypto products were mixed: ETFs tracking bitcoin and ether posted net outflows on Friday, yet for the week, bitcoin funds recorded net inflows of about $547 million while ether funds pulled in roughly $2.9 billion - a record week and the 14th straight week of inflows for ETH products. In short, retail and institutional flows are still present, but headline risk can flip sentiment quickly.

Corporate crypto stocks and related listings opened under pressure in premarket trade, mirroring the weakness in tokens. Ahead this week are the Fed's Jackson Hole symposium and Thursday's jobless‑claims print - two scheduled events that traders will use to size up the central bank's next moves.