Bitcoin Falls to $84K as Stablecoin, Macro and Regulatory Fears Trigger Leveraged Liquidations

Bitcoin slid to about $84,000 after failing to clear $92,000, wiping out roughly $388 million in long leveraged positions. Traders and analysts point to a mix of drivers rather than a single cause: heightened scrutiny of US-dollar stablecoins (notably S&P’s downgrade of Tether’s reserve assessment and a modest USDT discount in China), a weakening global macro outlook that reduced risk appetite, and increasing regulatory pressure including renewed warnings from Chinese authorities. Some commentators linked the move to higher Japanese government bond yields, but correlation between JGB moves and BTC has been inconsistent and likely reflects broader economic concerns. Additional stress factors included strains among digital-asset reserve managers and strategic balance-sheet holders after a 23% BTC decline over 30 days; MicroStrategy said it raised $1.44 billion in cash to shore up its position. Worries about AI-related debt financing and GPU-backed leverage were also cited. For traders, the episode underscores cross-asset contagion risks: stablecoin reserve doubts, macro/regulatory shocks and forced deleveraging can trigger rapid stop-loss cascades, boosting short-term volatility and reducing the willingness to add risk until clarity on stablecoin backing and macro direction improves.