Bitcoin Drops Below $80,000 as Inflation Data Adds to Selling Pressure

Bitcoin’s slide beneath $80,000 looks like the next stage of the selling pressure that has built up over the week, with an unexpectedly hot inflation reading on October 15 giving traders fresh cause to sell.

US wholesale inflation ran much hotter than anticipated on October 15, a day after the consumer inflation report disappointed. That has deepened fears that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates again.

Leveraged traders forced to unwind their positions are magnifying the selloff. The broader stock market, technology shares in particular, is under strain as well.

bitcoin:native is sitting on support.

However, underneath it a large cluster of long liquidations will be triggered. Another cluster sits around $75k.

Overhead, shorts liquidations have piled up above $85k all week. The lower clusters currently appear more fragile than those…

— glassnode (@glassnode), October 15, 2026

Inflation Delivers Another Blow

The US Producer Price Index (PPI), out at 8:30 a.m. New York time on October 15, posted its largest monthly increase since March 2022.

Energy played a leading role in the jump, with wholesale gasoline prices climbing 20.3% in September.

Investors pay attention to this number because higher production costs can eventually spill into consumer prices.

For markets, this means interest rates could stay elevated or keep climbing.

The CPI release a day earlier set off the latest macroeconomic shock; the PPI data amplified it, piling more pressure on an already softening bitcoin market.

Institutional Money Pulls Out of Bitcoin

US spot bitcoin ETFs have been losing money throughout this stretch.

The data point to a weakness that has persisted over several days:

• The week of October 5–9: approximately $679 million in net ETF outflows.
• The October 12–14 stretch: another $151.1 million in net outflows.
• The most recent session alone: $261.4 million was pulled, reversing Tuesday’s $175.7 million inflow.

Even before the latest inflation surprise, institutional demand was draining from the market.

As money exits bitcoin funds, the steady buying pressure that would otherwise absorb selling from existing holders becomes thinner.