Bitcoin Slips Below $80K and Drags Altcoins Even Lower

Bitcoin briefly slipped below a level it had closed above every day since mid-September. Forced closures of leveraged long bets made up most of the day’s liquidations. Altcoins lost more ground than Bitcoin, lifting its share of the total crypto market. Bitcoin now trades under two moving averages that supported it for weeks. Bitcoin slipped below $80,000, touching roughly $79,800 on Binance before buyers lifted it back to about $80,400, as a broad crypto sell-off forced the closure of $645 million in leveraged positions over 24 hours.