Bitcoin’s selloff deepened late Thursday in U.S. trading, with the price briefly slipping to $81,000 before recovering slightly to around $82,000.
The largest cryptocurrency has now fallen nearly $10,000 over the past 24 hours, bringing its November low just under $81,000 back into view. The sharp move lower triggered widespread forced selling, with more than $777 million in long positions liquidated in the past hour alone. Total crypto liquidations over the past day have climbed to roughly $1.75 billion, according to CoinGlass data.
The decline spread across the broader digital asset market, where most major tokens posted losses of 7% to 9% over the same period. Ether was last hovering near $2,700, while BNB traded around $843 and XRP near $1.74.
Bitcoin is now testing a key technical threshold, barely holding above its November lows. A decisive break below that level could open the door to a move toward $75,000, the next significant support area tied to the tariff-driven market slide in April 2025.
The market move coincides with reports that U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to name former Federal Reserve Board member Kevin Warsh as his pick to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Trump said late Thursday that he would announce his nominee Friday morning, following renewed criticism of Powell and the Federal Reserve for failing to cut interest rates.
Prediction markets reacted swiftly. Polymarket now assigns an 87% probability to Warsh securing the nomination, up from 37% just two hours earlier. Before Warsh’s odds jumped, BlackRock fixed-income chief Rick Rieder — viewed by some investors as a more dovish candidate — had been considered a possible front-runner.
