Bitcoin Slips to $73,500 Amid Nvidia Probe and CPI Wait

Bitcoin (BTC) fell to about $73,500 late Sunday, its lowest level since August, as more than $1 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated ahead of this week's US inflation reports, according to Cointelegraph. The decline extended last week's losses and pushed BTC/USD below its weekly close threshold just before the Sunday session ended, with TradingView data cited by Cointelegraph showing the slide accelerating into Monday trading. The drop coincided with a fresh wave of volatility across US equity futures tied to Nvidia, after the company's board launched an investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort.

Event: Liquidations Mount as Bitcoin Breaks Key Moving Averages

Cointelegraph reported that about $1.12 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated in the 24 hours through 9 am UTC Monday, according to data from CoinGlass. The sell-off drove Bitcoin below its 50-week simple moving average of $75,492 and toward its 21-week SMA of $73,078, per Cointelegraph's TradingView-sourced chart data. Bitcoin also traded below the short-term holder cost basis, which CryptoQuant put at $75,691 on Monday — a metric that estimates the average cost basis of coins that last moved less than 155 days ago, according to the report.

A CryptoQuant community analyst cited by Cointelegraph placed the cost basis for coins that last moved one to three months ago at about $79,300, warning that level could act as resistance if recent buyers sell as they approach breakeven. The analyst noted that "in 2026, price stayed below this line for months at a time (Feb–Apr, Jun–Aug) before reclaiming it," according to the Monday analysis relayed by Cointelegraph. Trader Rekt Capital said Sunday that selling volume would need to rise before sellers showed signs of exhaustion, writing on X that "Seller Exhaustion tends to happen exactly at or very close to a Bitcoin price bottom," per the Cointelegraph report.

The Nvidia dimension of the story added to the risk-off tone. Nvidia's board said Sunday it had launched an independent investigation into reports that Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort, while stating it had no reason to believe US national security or company secrets had been compromised, Cointelegraph reported. China's foreign ministry denied the spying allegations on Monday. Nasdaq 100 futures fell early Monday, recovered, then turned lower again ahead of the US cash open, even as S&P 500 and Dow futures held gains, according to the TradingView data cited in the report. The probe followed last week's broader tech sell-off, as investors weighed AI spending outlooks and potential US regulatory shifts following the midterm elections, per Cointelegraph.

Analysis: Reading the Fear and Greed Backdrop

CoinHours analysis: CoinHours' saved fear_greed observation, timestamped 2026-11-09T09:17:18.583+00:00, recorded a Fear & Greed Index value of 29, classified as "Fear" by provider Alternative.me. That reading sits alongside CoinHours' cycle_indicators snapshot from 2026-11-09T08:45:04.033737+00:00, which logged a BTC spot price of $74,353.76, a 200-day moving average of $73,229.48 (a ratio of 1.015), a 200-week moving average of $76,674.76 (a ratio of 0.97), and Bitcoin dominance at 60.22%. The same snapshot put the composite cycle score at 43, labeled "Mid Bull," with Bitcoin trading 82.87% of the way to its all-time high of $124,658.54 set on 2025-10-06, some 399 days prior to the snapshot.

These saved figures do not prove causation for the Nvidia-linked sell-off Cointelegraph described, but they offer useful context: a sub-30 Fear & Greed reading paired with a BTC price sitting just above its 200-day moving average and meaningfully below its 200-week moving average ratio suggests the asset was trading in a technically fragile zone even before the liquidation cascade Cointelegraph documented. The "Mid Bull" composite label implies the broader cycle framework had not yet flipped bearish at the time the $74,353 reading was captured, a level close to the $73,500 figure Cointelegraph cited for Sunday's low. Readers should treat the own-data snapshot as a contemporaneous market-condition marker rather than an explanation of the Nvidia-related news event itself.

Implications: Macro Crosscurrents From Oil, Rates, and Korea

Oil also featured prominently. West Texas Intermediate crude traded near $90 a barrel Monday morning, per the report, and economist Robin Brooks said Sunday that the war-driven risk premium was keeping oil elevated, arguing a decline toward $75 a barrel was plausible and could lift Bitcoin, stocks, and precious metals. Brooks forecast that Bitcoin would continue to show a negative correlation with oil as post-midterm dust settles, telling Cointelegraph's sourced commentary that "there's a lot of downside for oil and I think that means upside for gold at the margin, for silver, the S&P 500 and for Bitcoin." US President Donald Trump told CNN on Sunday that renewed US strikes on Iran were "highly unlikely," contingent on Tehran signing an agreement, per the report.

In Asia, South Korea's Kospi closed down 0.8% at 5,018.85 on Monday after briefly halting trading Friday when the index fell more than 8% shortly after the open, Cointelegraph reported. South Korean Vice Minister of Science and ICT Ryu Jemyung told a parliamentary budget committee Monday that he expected contracted Nvidia chip deliveries to stay on schedule, stating "we expect production and the delivery schedule for contracted volumes to proceed without disruption," according to CNA as relayed in the report. Economist Mohamed El-Erian called the timing of Nvidia's probe "unfortunate" given the company's systemic importance, writing that "investors tend to struggle to price in key-person and governance issues" amid "fluid national security and geopolitical dynamics," per his blog post cited by Cointelegraph.

What to Watch

The near-term catalysts flagged in Cointelegraph's report are concrete and dated: Tuesday's CPI print, Friday's PPI release, and ongoing developments in the Nvidia board investigation. Traders will also watch whether Bitcoin's price action around the 21-week SMA of $73,078 and the short-term holder cost basis of $75,691, both cited by Cointelegraph via CryptoQuant and TradingView data, act as support or resistance in the sessions ahead. Rekt Capital's framework around seller exhaustion volume, and whether the $79,300 recent-buyer cost basis identified by the CryptoQuant analyst becomes a resistance test, are additional technical markers the report highlighted for the week.

Further reading

For background on how spot exposure compares with direct ownership during volatile weeks like this one, see CoinHours' Bitcoin ETF vs Buying Bitcoin Directly comparison.

Further reading / context