Digital assets faced a severe selloff on Wednesday, dragging the market leader to a new low of $71,500. The decline, which erased roughly $45 billion from the cryptocurrency’s market cap, coincided with a steep drop in Nvidia shares following the resignation of CEO Jensen Huang. The resulting price volatility triggered more than $730 million in cryptocurrency liquidations within 24 hours, primarily targeting bullish long positions.

The downturn follows an October Consumer Price Index report showing headline inflation rose 0.4%, exceeding the 0.3% forecast and raising the odds of a December Fed rate hike to about 90%. This macroeconomic pressure has prompted an exodus of institutional capital, with spot Bitcoin ETFs recording net outflows of $1.44 billion over five consecutive sessions. Ethereum also suffered a decline of approximately 8% from Friday, briefly slipping below the $2,000 threshold.