Bitcoin Volatility and Sentiment: The crypto market saw roller-coaster moves over 48 hours. On Thursday, a broad sell-off wiped out nearly $1.2B in leveraged positions – roughly $1.1B in longs – as Bitcoin dipped under $110K and Ethereum under $4K coindesk.com. This rout drove the Crypto Fear & Greed Index down to 28, its lowest since mid-April coindesk.com. Analysts noted that “roughly $3B of levered longs have been liquidated in recent days,” flushing out excess leverage coindesk.com. By Friday, however, markets showed resilience: Bitcoin bounced back above $110,000 and major alts like ETH, DOGE and SOL outperformed with 2–4% gains coindesk.com. Fresh U.S. economic data may have aided the rebound – the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge came in at +2.9% YoY for August, exactly as forecast, easing rate hike fears coindesk.com coindesk.com. “If inflation trends lower, risk assets may find support from confidence in the Fed’s easing cycle,” noted Sygnum Bank’s CIO coindesk.com. Still, others warn the market could “grind lower” before stabilizing, with one analyst questioning new highs in 2025 absent a stronger catalyst coindesk.com.
