Bitcoin Price Crash: Top 3 Reasons Why BTC Price Dropped Below $80,000

$Bitcoin lost the $80,000 level over the weekend and is still fighting to get it back. BTC slid to a low near $79,200 on rising volume, bounced, and was turned away again at roughly $81,000. On Monday morning it hovers just around $80,000, down about 1 percent on the day, while Ethereum, XRP and Solana trade lower too. You can check the latest Bitcoin price on our prices page. The drop is not one single story. Three forces hit the market at the same time.

Reason 1: Middle East escalation and a $117 oil spike

The first blow came from outside crypto. Reports over the weekend said the US and Israel were preparing fresh strikes on Iran, following US evacuations from the region. Brent crude jumped more than 6 percent on Friday to about $117 a barrel and WTI climbed above $103. Expensive oil feeds inflation fears, inflation fears push bond yields up, and higher yields drain money from risk assets. Bitcoin, which institutions now treat as a high-beta risk trade, was among the first to be sold.

Reason 2: Bitcoin ETF outflows and the AI stock selloff

The second force was institutional money leaving the door. US spot Bitcoin ETFs reversed a three-day inflow streak and shed about $636 million on October 22, followed by another $138 million on October 23, roughly $773 million in two sessions according to Farside data. That coincided with a broad tech pullback: worries about AI spending and valuations dragged CoreWeave down more than 10 percent and Meta more than 9 percent on the week. When the Nasdaq wobbles, Bitcoin ETFs are the easiest position for a fund manager to trim, and that is exactly what happened.

Reason 3: Liquidations ahead of the Fed decision

The third force came from inside the crypto market. Traders had kept adding leveraged long exposure while the price drifted lower, a setup Bitfinex analysts had already flagged as a liquidation risk a week earlier. Once BTC cut through $80,000, roughly $670 million in positions were liquidated, mostly longs, and those forced sales pushed the price toward $79,200 faster than spot selling alone would have. Nobody wanted to hold that leverage into a packed week: the Federal Reserve announces its rate decision on October 28 and a large options expiry follows on October 30.

Bitcoin price prediction: what happens next?

The market is quieter than the headlines suggest. Bitcoin’s 30-day trading range has narrowed from 13 percent to 6 percent, and the price has spent nearly two weeks between $80,000 and $86,000. The Fear and Greed Index sits at a neutral 50, so this is not capitulation, it is a market waiting for a catalyst.

The levels to watch are clear:

• Bulls need to defend $79,600 to $80,000 and then reclaim $81,000, where the weekend bounce failed. A move above that zone opens the way back toward $84,000.
• Bears take over on a daily close below $79,200, which brings the October downside scenario of $76,000 into play.

The Fed on Wednesday will likely decide which path wins, and with oil near $117 the macro backdrop is not giving Bitcoin any free help.