Bitcoin fell below $76,000 on Thursday, erasing most of its post-election rally in a single session as a rout in artificial intelligence stocks swept through global markets. Bitcoin was trading around $75,878, down roughly 5.5% over the past 24 hours, after briefly climbing above $81,000 the day before. Ether fell about 7% to around $2,229.
The reversal triggered a major flush of leveraged bets. More than $1 billion in crypto derivatives positions were liquidated over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data, with nearly nine in ten dollars coming from long positions betting on higher prices. Over 200,000 traders were caught in the wipeout, the largest since at least October 28-29, when bitcoin tumbled from nearly $82,000 to $76,000. Aggregate open interest in bitcoin futures fell below $26 billion, its lowest since mid-September, down from $28 billion earlier in the session.
Crypto was dragged down with equities rather than leading the move. The Nasdaq shed 5.5%, the S&P 500 fell 4.3%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.4% in the worst day for US stocks since April 2025. Crypto-linked stocks were hit hard too, with Strategy, Coinbase, and Circle all sliding as the AI trade unwound. Bitcoin briefly traded below its 50-week moving average, then at $75,733, and touched an intraday low near $75,463, its lowest since mid-September.
The selloff extends a difficult stretch for crypto. US spot bitcoin ETFs recorded about $1.16 billion in combined net outflows across October 30 and November 2-3, according to Farside Investors, and markets have been under pressure since the Binance security incident in late October, which the exchange estimated at about $6.3 billion in impact.
Why it matters
The speed of the reversal is the story. Barely a day after the midterm elections lifted risk assets, the same crowded trade — long AI stocks, long crypto, heavy leverage — unwound in both directions at once. The $1 billion liquidation shows how much of the post-election rally was built on borrowed money rather than conviction: when prices turned, forced selling did the rest, and the cascade pushed bitcoin through technical levels that had held for weeks.
Yet the relative picture is more interesting than the absolute one. While the Nasdaq posted its worst day since April 2025, bitcoin's 5.5% drop was roughly in line with equities, not the outsized collapse crypto used to suffer in a panic. Traders at Wintermute noted crypto's relative resilience and growing adoption as reasons for optimism. If digital assets are starting to trade like a risk asset rather than a leveraged lottery ticket, that is a meaningful maturation — but it also means the old promise that bitcoin hedges a stock market selloff is, for now, still unproven.
Source: CoinDesk — Bitcoin (BTC) price falls below $76K as AI stock rout hit Strategy (MSTR), Coinbase (COIN), Circle (CRCL) (November 5, 2026). Summary rewritten by VCTRIA.
