A hotter-than-expected U.S. wholesale-inflation reading triggered a rapid sell-off across digital-asset markets on 14 August, erasing more than $100 billion from crypto’s overall market value. The Labor Department said the Producer Price Index rose 0.9 % in July, well above the 0.2 % consensus forecast, curbing expectations for a Federal Reserve rate cut next month and sending risk assets lower. Within 20 minutes of the data release, roughly $420 million in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated, ballooning to about $460 million in the first hour and to roughly $1 billion over the ensuing 24 hours, according to analytics site Coinglass. Some 211,000 traders were forced out of positions, with longs accounting for the bulk of the wipe-out. Bitcoin dropped from highs near $124,000 to about $118,000, while Ethereum slipped to roughly $4,600 after flirting with $4,700 earlier in the week. The pullback followed days of aggressive positioning: Ethereum futures open interest hit a record $35.5 billion on 13 August and options open interest climbed to $16.1 billion, heightening the market’s vulnerability to sharp swings. Coinglass data show more than $6 billion in Bitcoin shorts could still be liquidated should the token rebound to $125,000, underscoring the elevated leverage that continues to dominate crypto trading.