Bitcoin Sinks Toward $80,000 After Hot CPI. Will Whales Keep What They Added?

A hotter-than-expected US inflation report knocked Bitcoin (BTC) down 3.3% in 24 hours to $80,979. The drop pushed the price under what US spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) paid, on average, for their coins.

Whales had spent the weeks before the report building their balances to levels not seen in nearly a year. With prices now under pressure, will they keep the coins they added or start handing them back?

Hot Inflation Pushes Bitcoin Under the ETF Cost Basis

Annual US inflation climbed to 3.7% in September, beating the 3.6% forecast. Core inflation rose to 2.6% against an expected 2.5%.

Bitcoin dipped within minutes of the release and kept sliding. Leveraged traders took heavy losses too, with crypto liquidations nearing $1 billion in the 24 hours to early Thursday. Long positions accounted for 91.6% of the total.

The drop took Bitcoin below the average price US spot ETFs paid for their coins, near $81,500 per Glassnode. Those funds recorded $261.5 million in net outflows the same day, SoSoValue data shows.

Bitcoin Whale Accumulation Ran Ahead of the Print

Whales had made their move before the print, CryptoQuant data shows. They shifted from distribution to accumulation over the preceding weeks. Their holdings outside exchanges and mining pools reached 3.03 million BTC, the highest since November 2025.