Bitcoin slipped under $73,000 on Tuesday after the October inflation report came in hot. Coinbase had the low at about $72,643. Around $716 million in crypto bets got wiped out, the miner MARA said it sold a big pile of its Bitcoin to pay off loans, and Coinbase quietly got a full US trust charter. Busy couple of days. Here's what each one actually means.
Published November 11, 2026, morning ET. Bitcoin was about $73,643 at 5:12am ET (Coinbase). Live price: our crypto prices page.
The numbers
| Tuesday low | About $72,643 (Coinbase, Nov 10) |
| Now | About $73,643 at 5:12am ET Wednesday |
| October CPI | +0.4% for the month (0.3% expected); core +0.3% (0.2% expected) |
| Liquidations | About $716M in 24 hours (Coinglass via FXStreet); other trackers $705M to $732M |
| MARA | Sold 13,597 BTC for about $1.1B, repaid $750M in loans |
| Coinbase | Final OCC approval for its national trust company (effective Nov 6) |
The inflation report did the damage
The October Consumer Price Index came out Tuesday at 8:30am ET. Prices rose 0.4% in the month when economists expected 0.3%. Core prices, without food and energy, rose 0.3% against 0.2% expected. Hotter inflation means interest rates probably stay high for longer, and that's bad news for anything risky. Bitcoin, Ethereum and tech stocks all dropped. We covered the Ethereum side yesterday in Ethereum drops below $2,100.
Bitcoin was already weak going in. It hit a two-month low near $73,700 on Monday (here's that story), and the CPI number pushed it through $73,000.
$716 million in liquidations
Liquidations are what happens to people trading with borrowed money. When the price moves against them far enough, the exchange closes the position for them. FXStreet, using Coinglass data, put it at about $716 million over 24 hours, with about $589 million of that from people betting on prices going up.
Other trackers have it a bit different: TokenPost had $705 million, crypto.news $723 million. They measure at slightly different times, so don't sweat the exact figure. Point is, a lot of leverage got flushed out in one go, and forced selling like that pushes the price down further while it's happening.
MARA sold 13,597 Bitcoin
This one sounds scarier than it is. MARA, one of the biggest Bitcoin miners, said in its November 9 shareholder letter that it sold 13,597 BTC after the third quarter ended, for roughly $1.1 billion. The average price was about $81,039, so most of it was sold well above today's price.
It used $750 million of that to pay off loans it had backed with Bitcoin, from Coinbase Credit and Two Prime. MARA had about 34,012 BTC at the end of September, so this sale cut its pile by roughly 40%. It also says it isn't done selling, and its board approved up to $500 million in share buybacks.
Did MARA crash the price? Not really. These sales happened over the weeks after September, not all on Tuesday. But when a big holder says "we're selling more," it doesn't exactly calm anyone's nerves.
Coinbase got a full trust charter
The actual good news got buried. Coinbase got final approval from the OCC, the federal bank regulator, for Coinbase National Trust Company. It took effect November 6 and Coinbase announced it November 9. It had conditional approval since April.
What it is: a federally regulated custody business, meaning big clients can hold crypto with a nationally chartered trust company. What it isn't: a normal bank. It can't take deposits or make loans, and Coinbase says it won't take retail deposits. Coinbase joins Circle, Ripple and BitGo, which already have these charters (we covered Ripple's approval in October). One thing to know: a group of community banks sued in October to challenge the OCC's power to hand out these charters, so it's not totally settled.
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If you hold Bitcoin
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- Leverage is what got wiped out. Plain Bitcoin in your own wallet can drop, but it can't be force-sold on you.
- Keep your keys yourself if you're in it long term. A hardware wallet keeps your coins off exchanges. A metal seed phrase backup means a fire or flood doesn't take your recovery words with it.
- Scams spike on red days. Nobody legit DMs you offering to "recover" losses.
We don't do predictions. Next things to watch are Bitcoin ETF flows, whether $72,600 holds, and Nvidia earnings on November 17, since crypto has been moving with tech stocks.
Want to understand why people hold through drops like this? Broken Money by Lyn Alden explains how money works and where Bitcoin fits in, without the hype.
FAQ
Why did Bitcoin drop below $73,000?
October CPI came in hotter than expected (0.4% vs 0.3%), which set off about $716 million in liquidations.
How much Bitcoin did MARA sell?
13,597 BTC for about $1.1 billion, mostly to repay $750 million in Bitcoin-backed loans.
Is Coinbase a bank now?
No. It got a national trust charter for custody. It can't take deposits or make loans.
This is news, not financial advice.
Sources
- FXStreet: Bitcoin, crypto market fall as hot US inflation triggers $700 million in liquidations fxstreet.com
- TokenPost: Bitcoin falls below $73,000 as liquidations reach $705 million tokenpost.com
- crypto.news: Hot CPI triggers $723M liquidations crypto.news
- Bitcoin Magazine: MARA sells 13,597 bitcoin for $1.1B bitcoinmagazine.com
- The Block: MARA Q3 results, sells 13,597 BTC to pay off loans theblock.co
- Bitcoin Magazine: Coinbase wins full OCC national trust charter bitcoinmagazine.com
- CoinMarketCap: Coinbase joins Ripple, Circle with final OCC trust charter coinmarketcap.com
- Coinbase Exchange: BTC-USD daily prices coinbase.com
Written by the WIZY creator
A lifelong gamer and Warhammer painter, and the maker of the WIZY RPG game. I write about games, hardware, Warhammer and crypto in plain English, and I check every fact against its source.
