Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto assets have been liquidated as new inflation data shakes global markets.
According to data from market intelligence firm Coinglass, about $250 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets were liquidated in the last 12 hours.
The liquidations were triggered by a worse-than-expected report on inflation in the US. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) a method of calculating inflation rates for consumers, rose 0.4% for the month, higher than estimates of a 0.3% increase.
The report triggered a flash crash in the crypto markets, with BTC dropping from about $19,000 to a low of $18,317 and then back above $19,000.
The most heavily liquidated tokens are Bitcoin and the leading altcoin, Ethereum (ETH). Nearly $40 million worth of BTC was liquidated while $37.6 million worth of ETH was wiped out.
Other notable virtual assets that were sold include smart contract platforms Solana (SOL), XRP, and Cardano (ADA), with $2.84 million, $1.89 million, and $1.23 million liquidated respectively.
Coinglass also finds that the majority of positions liquidated on crypto exchange platforms were futures contracts that were long.
According to the CPI, which is released monthly, inflation is up 8.2% year over year. Though the CPI technically doesn’t include food and gas, it still keeps track of its price indices, which also show significant increases.
“The ‘all items’ index increased 8.2 percent for the 12 months ending September, a slightly smaller figure than the 8.3% increase for the period ending August. The ‘all items’ [minus] food and energy index rose 6.6% over the last 12 months.
The energy index increased 19.8% for the 12 months ending September, a smaller increase than the 23.8-% increase for the period ending August. The food index increased 11.2% over the last year.”
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