Bitcoin fell more than 5% to trade near $76,000 on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 5, as the stock market’s selloff spread to crypto, Cryptonews reported in an update published at 5:38 p.m. Eastern. The drop undid the short-squeeze bounce that had lifted bitcoin above $80,000 a day earlier.
Anyone who owns bitcoin, or holds it inside a fund or retirement account, saw a one-day bounce disappear in a single session. The decision in front of those holders is how much of their wealth should ride on a price that can move like a technology stock, and what it means for the money they plan to spend over the next year.
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What undid Wednesday’s jump?
Bitcoin got to about $80,000 on Wednesday, Nov. 4, when a short squeeze forced traders who had bet against it to buy, CoinMarketCap said. Decrypt, citing CoinGlass, said about $378 million in short positions were liquidated in an hour as the price crossed $80,000. The Thursday decline erased that move. Decrypt reported bitcoin at about $76,500 around midday, down nearly 5%, and CoinMarketCap put it at about $76,500 at 11:20 a.m. Eastern.
Cryptonews described a morning slide through the mid-$75,000s, a brief test of support near $75,400 and a late-session recovery to just under $76,000. Cryptonews called it bitcoin’s biggest one-day slide since June, and Decrypt said about 90% of the top 100 cryptocurrencies fell alongside it.
How did a stock rout reach crypto?
The trigger was in the stock market. Yahoo Finance’s live coverage showed the Dow falling 1,833 points to 51,523 and the Nasdaq-100 losing about $2.3 trillion in value, with chip makers hit hardest. Bitcoin followed the Nasdaq lower during the day.
Darkfost, a contributor at the data firm CryptoQuant, told CoinMarketCap that bitcoin “has spent more and more time moving in line with the stock market, both up and down.” Benjamin Cowen, founder of Into The Cryptoverse, put it more bluntly: “If the NASDAQ can go back to the summer lows, then so can Bitcoin.”
The Associated Press’s market close report had the S&P 500 down 4.4% and the Nasdaq composite down 5.5%, with Nvidia off 9.3%. Decrypt said local data-center restrictions now exist in at least 29 U.S. jurisdictions, and that UBS estimates pauses could threaten 30% of planned 2028 U.S. data-center capacity additions.
How much borrowed money was wiped out?
Leveraged bets amplified the drop. Cryptonews cited about $1.08 billion in forced liquidations of leveraged crypto positions over 24 hours, including about $954 million in long bets, with nearly $900 million of it in the roughly four hours after the U.S. stock market opened. Decrypt, using CoinGlass data, counted about $428 million in long positions liquidated within a single hour, and CoinMarketCap cited $632 million in long liquidations in the four hours to late morning, about $191 million of it in bitcoin.
Ted Parkhill, chief executive of Incline Investment Management, told Decrypt, “The market’s moving from the promise of AI to the price of AI.” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote, said in the same report, “We suspect there is going to be some scrutiny on this aggressive AI buildout.”
Where do analysts see the next stop?
The price levels traders watched were round numbers. CoinMarketCap said the top of Glassnode’s $73,000 to $76,000 support band was in play, and that a further 4% decline would reach $73,000. MichaĂ«l van de Poppe, founder of MN Capital, wrote, “Nothing really changed; the only difference is that the likelihood of sweeping $75,000 has increased.”
Decrypt listed Democrats’ midterm sweep, doubts over AI spending, and an expected Federal Reserve rate increase in December among the reasons for the slide, and said Friday’s jobs report could shift those bets. Cryptonews said bitcoin miners and crypto-linked stocks fell harder than the coin itself, with miners down as much as 20%. Jordan Watson, a portfolio manager at Tandem Investment Advisors, said investors may face more volatility as they absorb the election results, CoinMarketCap reported.
Who else got hit in the crypto world?
Ether fell more than 5% as well, according to Decrypt, and Cryptonews said it dropped below $2,300. Cryptonews listed Strategy, Coinbase and Circle each down more than 10%, and said bitcoin miners such as CleanSpark, Cipher and TeraWulf each lost more than 12%.
The slide came after a rough month for the sector. Decrypt said crypto had lost roughly $300 billion in value over the prior month and pointed to fallout from a recent Binance hack and a stalled Clarity Act, which it said faces a harder path under Democratic control. Wednesday’s bounce, it said, was partly short covering and fragile.
Bitcoin trades around the clock, so the numbers shift by the hour. Thursday’s marks were $76,500 at 11:20 a.m. Eastern, a low near $75,400 and a finish just under $76,000 late in the U.S. stock session. A later quote on Yahoo Finance showed $75,517.84, down 5.97% on the day.
Does a day like Nov. 5 change where this year’s spending money belongs?
Bitcoin’s drop from above $80,000 to near $76,000 in a day is the kind of move that cannot be planned around in a monthly budget. Money earmarked for bills, taxes and care costs over the next year is the part that should not depend on a crypto quote.
Make Your Savings Pay You is an 11-page guide to the insured places for that money, and it includes Treasury bills from $100, free of state and local income tax, along with high-yield savings, CDs and I bonds. Its ladder you can copy sets when each piece of cash comes due.
Get the guide to Treasury bills from $100 and the other insured places for spending money →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
