Bitcoin slides near $76,000 as Nasdaq correction sparks $1 billion liquidation

What happened

Bitcoin traded near $76,000 on Thursday afternoon, down more than 5% on the day, according to Bitcoin Magazine, which cited Bitcoin Magazine Pro data. The price slipped through the mid-$75,000s, briefly tested support around $75,400 and then steadied just under $76,000 in the final hour of U.S. cash trading. At the time of writing it was near $75,900, on course for its steepest one-day decline since June.

The afternoon move extended a morning crash that had already wiped out overnight gains above $80,000 and reversed Wednesday's short-squeeze bounce in a single session. Traders who had bought the rebound with borrowed money were among the first to be forced out when equities weakened at the open, and bitcoin never recovered the $77,000 area that had held as morning support.

Wall Street set the direction. The Nasdaq Composite fell about 5% and entered correction territory, more than 10% below last month's record close, CNBC reported. The S&P 500 lost roughly 4% and the Dow shed more than 1,600 points. Semiconductors led the decline, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down about 11% and the iShares Semiconductor ETF posting its worst single day since March 2020. Nvidia and Broadcom each fell around 9%, Qualcomm lost about 9% and Tesla dropped about 11%.

Forced selling kept pressure on crypto into the afternoon. Nearly $900 million of that total came in a roughly four-hour window after the U.S. open, turning a stock-led break into a cascade of margin calls. Ether fell below $2,300.

Why it matters

The session underlined how closely bitcoin has traded with the AI and semiconductor complex this year. Miners that sold bitcoin to fund data-center buildouts are now exposed to both trades, so political risk around power and construction affects the same companies that once traded mainly on the bitcoin price. Traders fear construction pauses and tighter financing for neoclouds, a concern that has weighed on chip and infrastructure names since the midterm results.

Crypto equities followed the move lower. Strategy (MSTR), Coinbase (COIN) and Circle (CRCL) each fell more than 10%, while miners dropped as much as 20%. Keel Infrastructure (KEEL), which sold its entire bitcoin treasury for $192 million, slid about 20%, and CleanSpark (CLSK), Cipher (CIFR) and TeraWulf (WULF) each lost more than 12%.

What the data shows

Bitcoin was near $75,900 in afternoon trade, down more than 5% on the day after sliding through the mid-$75,000s and testing support near $75,400. Ether traded below $2,300. Liquidation figures stood at about $1.08 billion over 24 hours, of which roughly $954 million were longs, with nearly $900 million occurring in a four-hour stretch after the U.S. open. On the equities side, the Nasdaq fell about 5%, the S&P 500 about 4%, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index about 11%, and the Dow more than 1,600 points.

Background

The mid-$75,000 area has acted as support on election night and several times since August, making it the level traders are watching most closely. A clean break below it would leave bitcoin with room to run lower, toward its weakest levels in months, and put the September low back in view. Options markets were quiet heading into the jobs print, but the cash market was not: volume stayed elevated through the afternoon as stocks and crypto sold together rather than against each other.

What to watch

The next test is Friday's October jobs report, followed by October CPI on Nov. 10 and the Federal Reserve's Dec. 9 decision. Policy risk is also building, with House Democrats drafting their own market structure bill ahead of taking committee control in January. For swing traders, the immediate question is whether bitcoin can hold the mid-$75,000 zone; a decisive break would shift attention to lower levels, while a hold would keep the range intact.

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