Bitcoin gave back its post-election rally on Thursday as the sell-off in AI stocks spread into crypto. The largest cryptocurrency fell about 6% to roughly $75,700, touching $75,568 intraday, according to The Block, after climbing back above $80,000 on Wednesday when Democrats' midterm gains briefly lifted risk assets [1]. Cointelegraph put the drop at a seven-week low [2]. Ether fell more than 7% to about $2,247 [1].

The slide tracked equities. The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% on Thursday, its worst session since April 2025, and entered correction territory as the Magnificent Seven lost more than $1 trillion in value (our earlier report) [5]. Analysts at FalconX and GSR tied the move to concern that Democratic control of Congress could slow AI data-center construction, according to CoinDesk [3].

ETF money heads for the exit

U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded $430.2 million of net outflows on Thursday, according to SoSoValue data cited by CoinDesk, reversing a $74.6 million inflow on Wednesday [3]. Net redemptions for the week through Thursday reached $869.8 million [3]. Spot ether funds lost about $100 million, taking combined bitcoin and ether outflows to roughly $530 million, after the two groups took in $128 million on Wednesday [4].

Sources: CoinDesk and Cointelegraph citing SoSoValue and Farside Investors; The Block for GBTC [3][4][6].

BlackRock's IBIT posted its fifth straight session of outflows and has lost more than $1 billion since Oct. 30, according to Cointelegraph, which put year-to-date net outflows from U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs at about $510 million after Thursday [4]. Smaller funds also bled: Solana ETFs lost $1.2 million, Zcash ETFs $11 million and Hyperliquid ETFs $3 million, The Block reported [6]. Simon-Peter Massabni of broker XS.com said asset managers were being forced to "liquidate alternative holdings to meet margin calls and deleverage portfolios" [3].

Leverage unwinds

Futures traders took the bigger hit. About $1.27 billion of crypto derivatives positions were liquidated over 24 hours, more than $1.1 billion of them bullish bets, according to CoinGlass data cited by CoinDesk [5]. In one four-hour window on Thursday, roughly $880 million of positions were closed out, about $819 million of them longs, The Block reported, noting that public liquidation data may understate the total [1]. Carlos Guzman, vice president of research at GSR, called it "a pullback in risk appetite amplified by leverage" [5].

Spot demand in the U.S. looked thin. Bitcoin traded at a discount on Coinbase relative to Binance, a gap CoinDesk linked to subdued American buying [3]. Jasper De Maere, an OTC trader at Wintermute, said the forces behind Wednesday's bounce, including relief that the Binance intrusion had not spread, election enthusiasm and lower oil prices, all proved short-lived: "It's probably a combination of all of them in some way" [1].

Crypto stocks and Asia

Listed crypto companies fell harder than the coins. By 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, Strategy and Coinbase were each down about 10%, while bitcoin miners Bitdeer and Keel Infrastructure fell about 20%, The Block reported [1]. American Bitcoin dropped 17% despite reporting a $126 million quarterly profit [1]. Miners also face worries that a slower AI data-center build-out will hurt them, CoinDesk noted [5]; Hut 8's third-quarter profit also rested on bitcoin gains.

The pressure carried into Asia on Friday, when South Korea's Kospi fell as much as 8.8% and triggered a 20-minute trading halt, according to CoinDesk [5]; Seoul has since suspended a margin-loan collateral rule to curb forced selling (our report). Bitcoin steadied: it bounced from about $75,200 late Thursday UTC and traded around $76,150 on Friday morning in New York, CoinDesk reported [7]. Bitcoin futures open interest edged up to $22.1 billion from $21.8 billion [7].

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