Bitcoin Falls Below $76,000 as Wall Street Selloff Triggers Over $1 Billion in Crypto Liquidations

Bitcoin's brief post-election bounce did not last a day. On Thursday the largest cryptocurrency erased that rebound and fell back below $76,000 as a sharp selloff in U.S. technology and AI stocks spilled into crypto markets.

The Block reported bitcoin down 6% to about $75,700 after an intraday low of $75,568, while ether dropped more than 7% to $2,247. That reversed Wednesday's rally, when bitcoin had climbed back above $80,000 after the U.S. midterms.

Forced selling made the move worse. CoinGlass data cited by The Block put total crypto liquidations near $1.1 billion over 24 hours, hitting roughly 211,000 traders. About $880 million of that was wiped out in a four-hour window, mostly from long positions.

Wall Street's AI rout hit crypto stocks first

CoinDesk described Thursday as the U.S. stock market's worst session since President Trump's April 2025 Liberation Day tariff announcements. The Nasdaq Composite closed down 5.5%, the S&P 500 fell 4.3%, and the Dow declined 3.4%.

The Nasdaq 100 dropped 6.4%, its poorest day since the March 2020 Covid panic, CoinDesk said. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged about 12%, also the worst session for that gauge since March 2020.

Shares tied to bitcoin mining and digital assets were hit harder still. The Block said Bitdeer and Keel Infrastructure each fell about 20%, American Bitcoin dropped 17%, and Strategy and Coinbase were each down about 10%.

Gold moved the other way. CoinDesk noted the metal was up 0.6% to $4,094 an ounce while risk markets sold off, the kind of split bitcoin bulls have long hoped the cryptocurrency would show in a panic.

Why the midterm relief faded so fast

Wednesday's rebound looked like a clean handoff from politics to prices. We covered that blue-wave rebound that pushed bitcoin back toward $80,000. By Thursday the same election result was being read as a risk for AI infrastructure spending.

Joshua Lim, global co-head of markets at FalconX, told CoinDesk that fresh selling returned as investors focused on a slower data-center buildout. He said Wednesday's relief rally was largely short-covering into a well-telegraphed result.

Carlos Guzman, vice president of research at GSR, told CoinDesk that investors were already questioning returns on huge AI infrastructure outlays. The midterms, he said, added worry that greater political opposition could slow that buildout.

Wintermute's Jasper De Maere, quoted by The Block, argued that Wednesday's bounce mixed relief after the Binance hack, election enthusiasm, hopes for slower AI spending, and falling oil prices. None of those catalysts lasted.

"What matters is that all of them seemed to be so short-lived that it actually didn't really matter," De Maere said, adding that Trump remains president for two years, the Middle East is still escalating, and inflation is elevated into a strong U.S. economy.

How the liquidation cascade unfolded

Derivatives markets turned a stock-led selloff into a crypto flush. The Block, citing CoinGlass, said about $879.92 million in positions were liquidated in four hours, including $818.90 million in longs and $61.02 million in shorts.

CoinDesk called it the largest wipeout since at least Oct. 28-29, when bitcoin tumbled from nearly $82,000 to $76,000. CoinDesk's live desk also reported that aggregate futures open interest fell below $26 billion from about $28 billion earlier in the session, according to Coinalyze.

The Block cautioned that public liquidation feeds often understate the true size of forced selling. Even so, the visible totals were large enough to erase most of Wednesday's short-covering gains.

By Friday morning Investing.com had bitcoin at $75,565.6, down 6.3% from the prior day, with ether at $2,223, XRP down 8.9%, and solana and Cardano each off about 7%.

Regulation fears join the price story

Price action was not the only hangover from the midterms. Democrats took both chambers of Congress, a result that had already reshaped crypto's political math in our coverage of crypto PACs and the Ohio Senate race.

Investing.com said bitcoin was set to lose more than 2% on the week, its fifth straight weekly decline, as traders fretted over a Democrat-led Congress. The outlet noted that Democrats helped block the Clarity Act earlier this year and have pushed for tougher anti-money-laundering rules.

The Block's daily briefing said crypto PACs spent about $170 million on the midterms, according to Fortune, and that TD Cowen now sees the Clarity Act as unlikely to advance over the next two years.

Paul Howard, senior director at Wincent, told The Block that stronger Democratic control could force more bipartisan bargaining for any meaningful crypto bill. Ryan Kirkley of Global Settlement Network said legislation may slow, but liquidity, rates, and the broader economy still drive institutional demand.

Trump memecoin and miner stocks add to the damage

Political tokens did not escape. The Block said the Official Trump memecoin hit an all-time low after falling more than 20% over two days. Investing.com put the weekly drop above 22% and said $TRUMP briefly traded at a record low of $1.116, down about 99% from its $73.43 peak after inauguration.

Investing.com also pointed to miner Riot Platforms disclosing that it sold most of its bitcoin holdings in the third quarter, another supply-side headline layered onto a market still digesting Binance's incident report on its $6.3 billion hack.

KuCoin's November 6 market report put the Fear and Greed Index at 28, down from 50 the day before, and said support near $75,000 to $76,000 was the near-term focus for bitcoin.

What comes next

Wintermute told The Block that if weakness continues, $73,000 and $68,000 are the next levels to watch. The firm said it would need bitcoin to reclaim and hold $80,000 convincingly before turning more positive.

Wintermute's De Maere, speaking to CoinDesk, struck a milder tone, saying crypto had held up relatively well versus the AI equity smash and that the medium-term glass still looked half full if correlations stay high and bargains appear.

The Block and KuCoin both flagged Friday's U.S. October employment report, along with consumer sentiment and eurozone retail sales, as the next macro catalysts that could move rates expectations and risk appetite.

For now the story is simple. One day of election optimism met a Wall Street AI rout, leveraged longs got flushed, and bitcoin is back testing the mid-$70,000s with a Democrat-controlled Congress hanging over the regulatory calendar.