Bitcoin slid below $83,000 as a sharp rise in long-dated U.S. Treasury yields pressured risk assets across global markets, triggering roughly $700 million in cryptocurrency liquidations in 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. More than 90% of the forced closures came from long positions, reflecting how quickly leveraged bullish bets unraveled as borrowing costs climbed.
The selloff followed the Federal Reserve’s release of minutes from its September meeting, which showed all 19 participants supported a rate increase and most anticipated that further tightening could be needed before year-end. Policymakers continued to describe inflation as elevated, while judging the labor market to be near full employment. They also said inflation risks remained tilted upward.
Bitcoin was last trading near $83,100, down more than 3% on the day based on public market data. Ethereum fell nearly 5%, while SOL declined about 3%. XRP and HYPE each dropped more than 4%, and DOGE lost more than 7%.
The move placed crypto alongside a broader retreat in assets sensitive to higher rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 341.41 points, or 0.66%, to 51,179.87. The S&P 500 lost 0.22% to close at 7,801.77, while the Nasdaq Composite also dropped 0.22%, finishing at 27,538.69. Germany’s DAX declined 1.35% and France’s CAC 40 fell 1.22%.
Treasury yields reach multi-decade highs
The pressure came primarily from the bond market. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose as high as 5.364% during the session, a level public market reports described as the highest since April 2002. It later eased toward 5.28% near the close.
The 30-year Treasury yield traded between 5.70% and 5.73%, levels described as the highest since May 2002, before hovering near 5.66%. Since early September, the 10-year yield has climbed from roughly 4.79% to 5.28%, while the 30-year yield has risen from about 5.27% to 5.66%.
Higher Treasury yields increase the return available from government debt, raising the hurdle for assets that do not produce contractual income, including Bitcoin, gold, early-stage technology equities, and many smaller crypto tokens. They also raise financing costs across the economy and can reduce the appetite for leveraged positions.
The Treasury market showed some demand beneath the volatility. At a $39 billion auction of 10-year notes, the U.S. Treasury recorded a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.77, above the 2.54 average across the previous six comparable auctions. Indirect bidders, a category that includes foreign institutions, received 80.3% of the offering, compared with a 10-auction average of 72.4%. Primary dealers took about 2.5% of the supply.
That auction result helped pull the 10-year yield back toward 5.28% to 5.30%, though it did not reverse the day’s broader move. Public market data placed both the 10-year and 30-year yields near the 98th percentile of their 52-week ranges.
The gap between the 10-year and 30-year yields stood around 35 to 40 basis points. That upward-sloping section of the curve differs from the inversions often associated with immediate recession concerns, but it also signals that traders are demanding greater compensation to hold debt over longer periods.
Fed minutes include AI demand concerns
The Federal Reserve minutes added another layer to the market reaction by recording discussion of artificial intelligence as a potential source of medium-term inflation pressure. Some participants said rapid AI development could lift aggregate demand beyond the economy’s productive capacity, adding upward pressure to prices.
That discussion arrived on the same day OpenAI began rolling out GPT-6 across ChatGPT’s paid plans. OpenAI said users of Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers would move to GPT-6 Sol on Oct. 7, while Free and Go users would transition to GPT-6 Luna on Oct. 8. The company also introduced an “Intelligent UI” designed to combine written responses with charts and interactive components.
OpenAI said ChatGPT’s weekly active user base had exceeded 1.2 billion. The scale of that figure illustrates why AI spending has become a macroeconomic issue rather than simply a technology-sector theme: major software upgrades can drive demand for data centers, chips, networking equipment, electricity, and construction.
Yet the AI-linked equity trade was uneven. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index declined 1.15%. Micron rose more than 4% and Super Micro Computer gained more than 3%, while Qualcomm and Arm each fell more than 2%. TSMC lost 2.09%, and Western Digital and SK Hynix’s U.S.-listed shares also declined.
Among the largest technology companies, Amazon gained 1.42%, Apple rose 0.91%, Alphabet added 0.81%, and Microsoft ended narrowly higher. Meta fell 2.38%, while Nvidia and Tesla closed modestly lower.
Dollar strength hits gold and crypto
The rising-yield environment also strengthened the U.S. dollar index above 102.3 and weighed on precious metals. Spot gold settled around $4,110 an ounce, down 1.28%, after falling as low as roughly $4,066, its lowest intraday level since Aug. 5, according to public pricing. December gold futures in New York fell $46.40 to $4,140.70 an ounce.
Spot silver traded near $59.75 an ounce.
Oil prices also declined despite Middle East developments. West Texas Intermediate settled 1.30% lower at $88.28 a barrel, while Brent fell 0.38% to $100.20. G-7 countries agreed to coordinate releases through the International Energy Agency totaling about 100 million barrels of crude and fuel over four months, according to public reports. IEA member countries also agreed to accelerate the pace of previously announced reserve releases.
CME FedWatch pricing on Oct. 7 put the probability of at least a 25-basis-point Fed rate increase in October at roughly 17% to 22%. The implied probability of at least one such increase by December stood between about 70% and 86%.
For crypto markets, the immediate test is whether selling pressure from leveraged positions subsides as Treasury yields stabilize. The latest liquidation wave followed a period of relatively subdued Bitcoin price movement in August, when the asset’s 30-day volatility was cited at 1.13%. The shift from compressed trading ranges to a $700 million forced unwind shows how quickly leverage can amplify a macro-driven decline.
Concerned about liquidations after Bitcoin’s drop? Learn which coins every trader should watch in 2026 next.
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