Bitcoin fell about 5% on Thursday morning as a selloff in technology stocks spread into crypto. Leveraged long positions took the brunt of the damage, and traders now watch whether the $75,000 area holds.
Bitcoin fell about 5% on Thursday morning, sliding from above $80,800 to near $76,000 as a sharp selloff in technology stocks spread into crypto. The drop wiped out traders betting on further gains with leverage.
BTC touched a low near $76,100 shortly after the U.S. stock market opened, erasing the rebound that had carried it back above $80,000 overnight.
Wall Street's AI trade breaks
The trigger sat on Wall Street. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled as much as 3.9% and slipped into correction territory, trading 10% below the record close it set last month, CNBC reported.
Chip and AI stocks took the worst of it. Nvidia and Broadcom each fell about 5%, while Qualcomm slid 9% after a weak outlook.
Investors are pricing in a Democratic-controlled Congress after Tuesday's midterms. Traders fear new limits on the data center buildout, according to Bitcoin Magazine.
Longs get flushed
Leverage turned the move into a flush. Roughly $370 million in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated in about an hour as bitcoin broke $77,000, most of them long bets.
CoinGlass data showed a larger figure. Liquidations in the past hour alone totaled over $560 million, with $530 million coming from longs, CryptoPotato reported.
Wednesday's short squeeze had pulled in late buyers with borrowed money. When stocks broke, those positions were the first to go, and forced selling pushed bitcoin through support around $77,000.
Altcoins followed. ETH is down by 7% on a 24-hour scale, below $2,300, and XRP is down by over 5% to $1.25.
Jobs data and the $75,000 test
The macro backdrop offered little cover. Initial jobless claims fell to 189,000 last week, against the 196,000 economists had expected, Reuters reported.
Fund flows offered only a small offset. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in a net $74.6 million on Wednesday, breaking a three-day run of outflows.
The next test is Friday's October jobs report, followed by October CPI on Nov. 10 and the Fed's Dec. 9 decision. Traders are watching whether bitcoin can hold the $75,000 area, which held as support on election night and several times since August.
Sources: Bitcoin Magazine, CryptoPotato
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