Bitcoin Slides Under $76K as AI Stocks Crater After Midterms

• BTC-USD
• QCOM

Crypto's post-election bounce didn't last. On Thursday (Nov. 5th), bitcoin fell from above $80.8K to under $76K as a sharp selloff in chip and AI stocks spread across markets, with BTC dropping "tick for tick" alongside a Nasdaq that slid roughly 4%, per CoinDesk.

• The spark: Wednesday's after-hours earnings gave chip bears an opening. Qualcomm sank double digits after its smartphone chip sales missed estimates, while Arm's guidance came in only a hair above consensus. That hit a sector already bruised by a 15.4% October slide in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

• The political overhang: Tuesday's Democratic midterm sweep included Texas, where Gina Hinojosa won the governor's race on a pledge to pause data center construction. Texas accounts for over a quarter of the U.S. data center capacity slated through 2030, so investors are now pricing in a slower AI buildout.

• Leverage flush: More than $1B in crypto derivatives positions got liquidated over 24 hours, the heaviest flush since at least Oct. 28th and 29th, while open interest in BTC futures dropped under $26B for the first time since mid-September. At the time of writing, BTC sits near $75.8K (down 5.7% in 24 hours) and ETH near $2,250 (down 7.2%). Privacy coins XMR and ZEC have held up better, down only low single digits.

• Miners hit twice: Bitcoin miners that pivoted to AI hosting are eating both crypto's drop and the data center backlash, including Riot, which has been leasing Texas capacity to Anthropic. IREN fell ~18% on a Bloomberg report that Microsoft is keeping closer tabs on its data center projects with IREN, Nebius, and Nscale.

The spark: Wednesday's after-hours earnings gave chip bears an opening. Qualcomm sank double digits after its smartphone chip sales missed estimates, while Arm's guidance came in only a hair above consensus. That hit a sector already bruised by a 15.4% October slide in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

The political overhang: Tuesday's Democratic midterm sweep included Texas, where Gina Hinojosa won the governor's race on a pledge to pause data center construction. Texas accounts for over a quarter of the U.S. data center capacity slated through 2030, so investors are now pricing in a slower AI buildout.

Leverage flush: More than $1B in crypto derivatives positions got liquidated over 24 hours, the heaviest flush since at least Oct. 28th and 29th, while open interest in BTC futures dropped under $26B for the first time since mid-September. At the time of writing, BTC sits near $75.8K (down 5.7% in 24 hours) and ETH near $2,250 (down 7.2%). Privacy coins XMR and ZEC have held up better, down only low single digits.

Miners hit twice: Bitcoin miners that pivoted to AI hosting are eating both crypto's drop and the data center backlash, including Riot, which has been leasing Texas capacity to Anthropic. IREN fell ~18% on a Bloomberg report that Microsoft is keeping closer tabs on its data center projects with IREN, Nebius, and Nscale.