Bitcoin slid below $74,000 on Monday for the first time since its mid-August breakout, dragging the wider digital-asset market down with it and erasing more than $80 billion in value in a single day.
The largest cryptocurrency touched a multi-month low of $73,500 in morning trading before recovering modestly to about $74,200, according to CoinMarketCap data. It remains lower on both a daily and weekly basis, and its market capitalization has fallen to roughly $1.49 trillion. Bitcoin's share of the overall market is holding just above 60%.
Total crypto market value dropped to about $2.47 trillion, down from roughly $2.55 trillion a week earlier, a weekly decline of around $100 billion.
Altcoins Take a Heavier Beating
Losses among smaller tokens outpaced Bitcoin's move. Ethereum fell almost 6% to around $2,100, while XRP traded below $1.10. HYPE and NEAR each lost more than 5%, and RAIN plunged more than 16%. Solana, Zcash, Dogecoin, Chainlink, Uniswap, Stellar and Bittensor were all in the red. PEPE and Quant were among the few names posting gains, with PEPE up 4.42% and leading the top 100 by market value.
Aerodrome Finance recorded the steepest drop among large-cap tokens, falling 6.51%, while Worldcoin dropped 5.18% to $0.3148.
Note: Prices reflect intraday levels on Nov. 9, 2026, and vary by data snapshot.
A Month of Violent Swings
October closed lower for Bitcoin, dashing hopes for the seasonal rally traders call "Uptober." The token shed more than 7% over the month, with much of the damage coming at the end after a large-scale exploit against Binance drained $6.3 billion, the biggest hack of a crypto company by dollar losses.
Bitcoin tumbled from about $81,000 to $76,000 within roughly an hour of the breach. A rebound attempt stalled near $79,000. The coin entered U.S. midterm election day near $78,000 and initially fell to what was then a seven-week low of $75,800 after a Democratic sweep. It then surged to $81,000 on Wednesday afternoon alongside a broad rally on Wall Street, only to give back all of those gains and more, dipping below $75,000 on Friday.
After moving sideways through the weekend between $75,500 and $76,000, sellers regained control on Monday. Liquidation volumes climbed to about $1 billion as leveraged positions were forced closed.
The slide in digital assets has unfolded alongside turbulence in traditional markets, with last Thursday's Wall Street selloff drawing comparisons in scale to the crypto rout.
What It Means for Investors
The break below $75,000, a level traders had watched as a psychological floor, puts Bitcoin at its weakest point in nearly three months and deepens a fifth consecutive weekly decline. The $1 billion in liquidations suggests the move was amplified by forced selling rather than orderly repositioning, a pattern that can extend losses quickly when leverage is concentrated.
With Bitcoin's market dominance hovering near 60%, capital has rotated out of altcoins faster than out of the largest token, leaving smaller assets with steeper weekly drawdowns. Among large caps, NEAR is down 15% over the week, Bitcoin Cash 13%, HYPE 12% and Stellar 11%, while Ethena has lost more than 18% and Ondo 12%.
