Bitcoin falls below $76,000 as tech stock selloff spreads to crypto

Bitcoin fell below $76,000 on Thursday as a sharp selloff in US technology stocks spread into crypto. By 11:35 UTC on Friday, November 6, it traded near $76,100, down more than 5 percent over 24 hours, according to crypto.news.

That drop shadowed Wall Street almost beat for beat. The Nasdaq Composite fell as much as 3.9 percent on Thursday and slipped into correction territory, Bitcoin Magazine reported, citing CNBC. Chip and AI names led the way down.

Nvidia and Broadcom each shed about 5 percent. Tesla lost around 9 percent. Several bitcoin miners that have moved into AI data centers, among them IREN, fell between 9 and 13 percent. Earlier in the week bitcoin had traded above $80,800, so the slide erased a lot of ground fast.

A drop that moved with the Nasdaq

For years the pitch for bitcoin was that it stood apart, a hedge that did not care what stocks did. This week told a different story. As the Nasdaq sold off, bitcoin sold off with it, and the link was tight. That is the kind of behavior typical of a high-risk tech bet, not a safe haven.

Part of the fear was concrete. UBS analysts estimated that around 30 percent of the US data center capacity planned for 2028 could be at risk if construction pauses spread, Reuters reported. Data centers are the backbone of the AI trade. Bitcoin now rides that trade closely.

There was a political layer too. Traders worried that Democratic wins in Tuesday's midterm elections could slow the policy support behind AI infrastructure spending, according to crypto.news. The same result has stalled a crypto market-structure bill in Congress, removing a tailwind traders had counted on. When the sector that led the market wobbled, everything priced for risk wobbled with it.

Crypto had drifted lower through late October, after a security breach at Binance, the largest exchange, knocked confidence. So the backdrop was already soft before Thursday arrived. The equity selloff simply gave nervous holders a reason to act, and a thin order book did the rest.

ETF investors pulled money for a fifth day

US spot bitcoin ETFs bled cash again. Funds saw net outflows of $430.2 million on Thursday, November 5, according to data from Farside Investors, after taking in $74.6 million the day before. Fidelity's FBTC led the exits with $199.9 million out, reversing a large inflow from Wednesday. BlackRock's IBIT, the largest of the funds, lost $105 million.

ETF flows have become the clearest read on institutional demand. When the funds take in cash, that buying pressure passes straight through to bitcoin. When they hand it back, the pipe runs in reverse. Five days of net selling is the kind of signal large desks watch, and it colors how the rest of the market feels about risk.

Those redemptions did not start this week. IBIT's run of daily outflows reached a fifth straight session, part of the same stretch that produced the largest daily ETF outflow since June, and its withdrawals since October 30 now top $1 billion. Analysts tie the mood to last month's breach at Binance, which cooled institutional appetite. One day is noise. A fifth in a row is a pattern.

Demand data pointed the same way. CryptoQuant's measure of spot net volume ran at positive $64.8 million on Binance at the end of August, analyst Darkfost noted, then turned negative $28 million by November 5. Fewer buyers were stepping up at these prices.

Leverage got washed out

Traders who bet on higher prices with borrowed money paid for it. About $1.26 billion in crypto positions were liquidated over 24 hours, and roughly $1.12 billion of that came from long bets, according to CoinGlass. Most of the damage hit in a short, violent window soon after US stocks opened.

Forced selling like this tends to feed on itself. A falling price triggers liquidations, those sales push the price lower, and the next group of leveraged traders gets stopped out. By the time the cascade ends, much of the froth is gone. That can clear the way for a steadier floor, or simply mark a pause before the next leg down.

Long-term holders barely felt it. Anyone trading with borrowed money felt it fast. The gap between those two experiences is the whole point of leverage. It multiplies gains on the way up and losses on the way down, and days like Thursday are when the second half of that bargain comes due.

What to watch

Neither the ETF withdrawals nor the stock losses on their own prove what set off the slide. Both landed at once. Each fed the other.

Some gauges flashed oversold. Bitcoin's Money Flow Index sat at 27.74, below the 30 mark that often signals a market has fallen too far too fast, crypto.news said. It also traded under its nine-day moving average of $77,909. Oversold readings can come before a bounce. They can also stay oversold for weeks.

Michael van de Poppe, a crypto analyst, said he expected the Nasdaq to find a floor on Friday and suggested bitcoin could steady after a sweep of $75,000, crypto.news reported. Forecasts like that miss as often as they land. Support sits near $75,300, with resistance around $77,900 on any bounce.

The next signals are plain. Whether tech stocks stabilize, and whether the ETF outflows slow. If buyers step in below $76,000, the floor holds. If not, $75,300 is the level everyone is watching.