Bitcoin slid below $80,000 on September 10, marking its fourth straight session in the red. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap traded between $76,000 and $78,500 throughout the day, touching an intraday low near $76,663.
That puts Bitcoin roughly 39% below its October 2025 high of $126,000, and firmly back in the middle of a trading range that has defined most of 2026. Since February, the asset has oscillated between $60,000 and $80,000, with the upper boundary proving stubbornly difficult to crack.
A perfect storm of macro headwinds
The selloff didn’t happen in isolation. Oil prices surged past $105 per barrel as tensions in the Middle East escalated again, dragging risk assets into a defensive posture across the board.
Meanwhile, US inflation data came in hotter than expected, raising the odds of another Federal Reserve interest rate hike.
Higher rates increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like Bitcoin. When Treasury yields climb, capital tends to rotate toward safer, income-generating instruments.
The $80,000 level has functioned as a ceiling for weeks now. Bitcoin encountered a notable rejection around $81,500 in late August, and every subsequent attempt to push through has fizzled.
ETF flows tell a bearish story
Institutional sentiment hasn’t been encouraging either. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded approximately $166.8 million in outflows over a recent two-day stretch, suggesting that even the traditionally steadier institutional cohort is trimming exposure.
Liquidation data underscored the pain. Over one 24-hour period, forced liquidations across crypto markets exceeded $386 million. That figure captures traders whose leveraged positions were automatically closed as prices moved against them, a process that tends to accelerate selloffs because each liquidation adds selling pressure that triggers more liquidations.
The bigger picture since the 2025 peak
Zooming out, Bitcoin’s current predicament looks like a prolonged cooldown from its October 2025 peak of $126,000. That high was driven by a confluence of post-halving momentum, ETF inflow euphoria, and broadly improving macro conditions at the time.
The $60,000 to $80,000 range that has held since February represents a roughly 25% band.
What investors should be watching
For Bitcoin specifically, the $76,000 area appears to be the next meaningful support zone. A break below that could open the door to a test of the lower end of the multi-month range near $60,000, which would represent another 20%-plus decline from current levels.
The ETF flow picture will be critical to monitor as well. The $166.8 million in recent outflows is notable but not yet alarming in the context of the billions these products hold.