Bitcoin’s drop below $76,000 on Thursday, November 5, was part of a broad retreat from riskier assets. Technology and AI stocks plunged, and crypto fell with them. The reversal erased Bitcoin’s brief post-election rebound; leveraged liquidations and pre-existing concerns around the crypto industry added to the pressure.
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The tech sell-off set the tone
The Nasdaq 100 sank 6.4% on Thursday, while the S&P 500 fell 4.4%, according to Bloomberg. Semiconductor stocks were hit especially hard, amid underwhelming earnings outlooks and concern that Democrats’ control of Congress could bring tighter oversight of the AI industry.
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Those policy concerns were expectations, not enacted restrictions. Some market commentary also pointed to possible limits on data-centre expansion, but the immediate market picture was broader: investors were selling technology shares and other risk-sensitive assets.
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That backdrop helps explain why Bitcoin’s move was not simply a reaction to crypto-specific news. It had climbed as much as 4.2% to just over $81,000 on Wednesday, then reversed as the wider market sold off. One report attributed part of the rebound to a short squeeze; either way, the price surge did not hold through Thursday’s risk-off trading.
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Liquidations amplified the fall
As prices dropped, leveraged crypto positions were forcibly closed, adding selling pressure. One report put liquidations at $1.09 billion over 24 hours, affecting about 211,000 traders. A separate snapshot recorded about $878 million liquidated over four hours, including $798 million in long positions. The figures cover different time windows, but both point to a sharp unwind of bullish bets.
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The market was already carrying crypto-specific strains. The previous week’s $6.3 billion Binance security breach had sent cryptocurrency prices lower and led the exchange to halt withdrawals. That episode formed part of the unsettled backdrop, although the reporting on Thursday’s move points chiefly to the technology sell-off as the immediate driver.
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Crypto-linked stocks fell with Bitcoin
The pressure spread to public companies tied to digital assets. Coinbase and Strategy each fell about 10%, while Circle dropped about 12%, according to contemporaneous market reporting. Robinhood also lost about 10% in one report. The simultaneous declines show how the broad market move reached beyond Bitcoin itself.
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Company-specific earnings concerns may also have made the sector more vulnerable. Coinbase reported third-quarter revenue of about $1.22 billion and net income of about $718.7 million, but roughly $715 million of that income came from gains on crypto assets held for investment. That makes the headline profit a less straightforward measure of ongoing operating strength.
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Circle shares fell despite an earnings beat and an analyst upgrade. One report said $182 million of Circle’s $865 million in quarterly revenue came from a one-time presale of its ARC token. The result helps explain why a favorable headline did not insulate the shares when investors were selling crypto-linked equities broadly.
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What the sell-off suggests—and what it doesn’t
Thursday’s move showed how quickly pressure in one high-growth corner of the stock market can spill into crypto when investors are reducing risk. The evidence supports a combination of broad technology weakness, concerns about the AI outlook and policy environment, and leveraged selling in crypto—not a single isolated catalyst.
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The prior Binance breach and questions about the quality of reported earnings added context, but they should not be mistaken for the main trigger identified in Thursday’s market coverage. Nor does one day’s cross-market decline establish how Bitcoin or crypto stocks will perform next. The clearest takeaway is narrower: in a broad risk-off session, crypto assets and related shares were exposed to the same selling wave as technology stocks.
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