Why is Bitcoin down today? Check the double blow: inflation, liquidations

The Bitcoin price fell ~2.51% to ~$73,386 at the time of writing on Tuesday, with 24-hour trading volume reaching $26.81B.The decline extended its losses to nearly 5% over the past week and about 12% over the past month, as renewed inflation concerns and rising interest rate expectations weighed on risk appetite.One of the main reasons behind today's was the October CPI report. U.S. inflation rose 0.4% M/M, above economists' expectations of 0.3%. also came in higher than expected at 0.3%, compared with a 0.2% estimate. The hotter reading raised concerns that inflation remains persistent, potentially forcing the Federal Reserve to maintain a tighter monetary policy.The hotter-than-expected report also pushed . The U.S. 2-year Treasury yield jumped around 20 basis points to 4.77%, its sharpest daily increase in two years, while the 10-year yield crossed 5%.The move added to pressure on cryptocurrencies as investors reassessed the outlook for interest rates.This also changed expectations for the Federal Reserve's December meeting. According to CME FedWatch data, markets now see an 88.7% chance of a 25-basis-point rate hike and an 11.3% chance of a 50-basis-point increase. The probability of a rate cut or no change fell to zero.The weakness spread across the broader crypto market, with Ethereum falling more than 4%, Solana declining over 4%, XRP losing nearly 3%, and Hyperliquid (HYPE-USD) dropping close to 5%.Moreover, heavy liquidation added to the selling pressure. According to CoinGlass, more than 121K traders were liquidated over 24 hours, triggering approximately $718M in forced liquidations.Bitcoin alone accounted for $200.28M, of which $177.10M came from long positions.The market also has plenty of outstanding leveraged positions. Total Bitcoin open interest across major derivatives exchanges stood at 708.55K BTC, worth approximately $52.12B, leaving prices vulnerable to further swings.Importantly, crypto-related stocks followed the downturn. MicroStrategy , Coinbase Global , Robinhood , and BitMine Immersion all fell nearly 4%.While Circle Internet lost 5%, Bullish slipped 2%, Hut 8 lost 2%, CleanSpark declined nearly 7%, and Bitdeer Technologies dropped over 5%.Overall, higher inflation and rising rate expectations have made investors more cautious, while forced liquidations have added to the pressure.Content provided by Seeking Alpha is intended for information purposes only, and that Seeking Alpha does not offer any personalist investment advice and is not a licensed securities dealer, broker, US investment adviser or investment bank.