Bitcoin Crashes After FOMC as Warsh Turns Hawkish, $400M Liquidated
Bitcoin (BTC) slid sharply after the latest FOMC meeting and the subsequent press conference by Fed chair Kevin Warsh. Rates were left unchanged for the fourth straight meeting, but Warsh’s hawkish tone surprised investors.
BTC was rejected above $66,000 and dumped to around $64,000 within hours. The move intensified after the conference, pushing BTC from an intraday high near $66,400 down through $65,000 and back lower again.
Other major coins followed. Ethereum (ETH) was down about 3% to under $1,740. BNB lost the $600 support level, while XRP fell below $1.20.
The selloff triggered massive leverage unwind. CoinGlass data shows more than $400 million in liquidation value over the past 24 hours, with nearly half occurring in the last 4 hours. Long positions dominated: about $280 million liquidated daily, and roughly $79 million of the $82 million liquidations in the last hour were longs. The largest single liquidation was on Binance, worth about $5 million.
Trader implication: the hawkish Fed signal appears to have tightened risk conditions immediately, making BTC price levels around $66K–$64K especially sensitive to any further Fed commentary.
Bearish
This is classified as bearish because the catalyst is explicitly hawkish Fed communication that reduces the probability of “easy money” and tightens financial conditions—typically a headwind for BTC risk assets. The immediate market reaction confirms this: BTC failed above $66K and cascaded toward $64K, while altcoins slid and long leverage was aggressively forced out.
The $400M+ liquidation figure, with longs accounting for most of it, signals crowded positioning and weak near-term support. Similar liquidation-driven selloffs in prior Fed-surprise episodes often produce short-term volatility spikes, followed by either (a) sharp rebounds after forced sellers exhaust, or (b) continued downside if subsequent macro headlines keep pressuring rates expectations.
Short-term impact: higher chances of further downside wicks around key levels ($66K resistance, $64K support) as traders react to each new macro update.
Long-term impact: if Warsh’s hawkish path persists, it can cap BTC rallies until rate-cut expectations reprice. If BTC stabilizes and liquidation declines, a relief bounce becomes more likely, but the bias remains bearish while hawkish guidance dominates.