Bitcoin Hits Three-Month Low Near $71,300 as Nvidia's Jensen Huang Resigns and Rate-Hike Bets Build

Bitcoin fell to its weakest level in about three months on Thursday, sliding to roughly $71,300 after Nvidia announced that co-founder Jensen Huang had resigned as chief executive, effective immediately.

That left bitcoin down about 3% over 24 hours and at its lowest price since mid-to-late August, according to CoinDesk's live coverage. Ether, solana and XRP fell by similar amounts, and CryptoSlate data showed ether dropping below $1,990.

Crypto was already soft before the Nvidia news landed. Five straight days of spot ETF outflows, hawkish Federal Reserve talk and a jump in short-term Treasury yields all pushed in the same direction.

What happened at Nvidia

In a statement on Thursday, Nvidia's board said Huang had resigned as president, CEO and a member of the board, effective immediately. A filing with the SEC shows the board accepted the resignation on November 11.

Chief financial officer Colette Kress, who joined Nvidia in 2013, will serve as interim CEO while keeping her CFO role. Longtime director Harvey C. Jones was named the company's first-ever chair, and the board said it will consider internal and external candidates for a permanent chief executive.

Nvidia did not give a reason. The exit followed days of reports about Huang's personal life, including a New York Times report about a relationship with a company executive and a Wall Street Journal report that the board was preparing to remove him, both cited by CoinDesk.

CoinDesk reported that Nvidia shares fell as much as 14% after the announcement. CryptoSlate calculated that at around $156 a share, the chipmaker's market value would sit nearly $2 trillion below its October peak. Nvidia still plans to report third-quarter results on November 17.

Why a chipmaker's CEO change moves bitcoin

Bitcoin has traded closely with tech stocks this year, Yahoo Finance noted. When Nvidia gapped lower after Wednesday's close, bitcoin went with it, dropping from $74,811 to $73,480 within two hours.

The selling spilled into AI infrastructure names that overlap with bitcoin mining. CoinDesk's live blog showed IREN down 5%, Cipher Digital down 6% and CoreWeave down 7% early Thursday, while Render, the token behind a decentralized GPU network, fell 3.1%.

Coin Bureau CEO Nic Puckrin told CryptoSlate that replacing Huang could backfire on the wider AI industry, given his central role in the financing deals that tie chipmakers, cloud operators and AI developers together.

The broad stock market actually held up better than crypto. About 30 minutes into the U.S. session, the Nasdaq was down only 0.35% and the Dow was slightly higher, with Broadcom and AMD each up around 3%, according to CoinDesk.

Rate-hike fears are doing the heavy lifting

Nvidia was the trigger, but macro pressure did much of the work. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said on Thursday that inflation pressures are broadening and the Fed needs to move to a restrictive policy stance, CoinDesk reported.

She did push back a little on Fed Governor Chris Waller, who said earlier this week he would favor a 50-basis-point hike in December. Hammack said she prefers smaller, steadier increases.

Short-term yields jumped anyway. The 2-year Treasury yield rose 7.2 basis points to 4.80%, and bitcoin slipped under $72,000 soon after. CME FedWatch was pricing around a 90% chance of a hike at the December 8-9 meeting, per CoinDesk.

That builds on Tuesday's hot inflation data, which we covered when bitcoin slipped after the October CPI report. CoinDesk's daybook also noted that the Dollar Index briefly topped 103, its highest level since March 2025, and a strong dollar tends to make crypto less attractive.

ETF money keeps leaving

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost $299.9 million on Wednesday, according to SoSoValue data cited by CoinDesk. It was the fifth straight day of outflows, adding up to around $1.44 billion since November 5.

BlackRock's IBIT accounted for $269.7 million of Wednesday's total, its ninth straight session of redemptions. Morgan Stanley's MSBT was the only fund to take in money, adding about $9 million.

Ether ETFs lost about $145 million the same day, and roughly $465 million left U.S. spot crypto ETFs in a single session, CoinDesk said. The streak extends a slide that began when bitcoin ETFs flipped negative for 2026.

Yahoo Finance tallied $1.88 billion of net outflows in November so far, with IBIT responsible for $1.77 billion, or 94% of the total. Only one trading day this month has seen money come in.

MSCI adds a crypto-specific headwind

Crypto also has a problem of its own. MSCI has confirmed it will remove Strategy, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, from its global equity indexes after the close on November 30, a decision we broke down this morning when MSCI dropped Strategy and Metaplanet from its indexes.

Strategy shares were down about 4% in premarket trading, CoinDesk reported. Analysts at Marex cautioned that the company still holds 850,364 BTC and has reported no sales, so index outflows should not be read as automatic bitcoin selling.

The levels traders are watching

CoinDesk's daybook said bitcoin has dropped below its 50-week simple moving average of $75,153. That reverses a September breakout that several analysts, including Galaxy Digital's Alex Thorn, had read as the start of a new bull run.

"We stay cautious while BTC sits under its 50-week average, with $68k the next level down and reclaiming $80k changing that view," market maker Wintermute said, as quoted by CoinDesk.

Options traders are hedging for more downside. The $60,000 put is now the third most popular contract on Deribit, with nearly $900 million in notional open interest, behind calls at $80,000 and $90,000. The crypto fear and greed index sits at 26, in fear territory.

What comes next

Friday's U.S. producer price report is the next test. LMAX Group strategist Joel Kruger told CoinDesk that much of the Fed's hawkishness may already be priced into the dollar, and if PPI and Fed commentary give it little reason to climb, bitcoin could lead a recovery.

Nvidia's earnings on November 17 will show how the AI trade copes under interim leadership. Quartz reported that three House Republican committee chairs have also asked Huang to appear for a private session with lawmakers on November 18.

After that come the MSCI rebalancing on November 30 and the Fed's December 8-9 meeting. Until ETF flows turn and bitcoin wins back its 50-week average, the burden of proof sits with the bulls.