Bitcoin fell 6% to $75,700 on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, erasing its post-U.S. midterm election gains as a sharp selloff in technology and AI stocks spread to crypto markets. Ether dropped more than 7% to $2,247, while crypto derivatives liquidations approached $1.1 billion over 24 hours.
The reversal followed Wednesday’s recovery above $80,000. According to The Block’s report, that rebound came amid election-related optimism and signs that the Binance hack had not caused broader market disruption. Thursday’s decline took bitcoin to an intraday low of $75,568.
A broad risk selloff, amplified by leverage
The weakness extended well beyond digital assets. At 2 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were each down about 3%, while the Nasdaq Composite had fallen 4.7%. The Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, rose approximately 60%.
Bitcoin-related stocks also suffered steep losses:
- Bitdeer and Keel Infrastructure each fell about 20%.
- American Bitcoin dropped 17%, despite announcing a quarterly profit of $126 million.
- Strategy and Coinbase each declined about 10%.
The Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin reached an all-time low after losing more than 20% over two days.
Forced position closures added another layer to the crypto selloff. CoinGlass data cited in the report showed $879.92 million in liquidations within four hours: $818.90 million in long positions and $61.02 million in shorts. Across 24 hours, nearly 211,000 traders were affected by liquidations totaling almost $1.1 billion.
Those figures carry an important limitation: publicly available liquidation data may significantly understate the full extent of forced closures.
Why the relief rally did not hold
Trading firm Wintermute interpreted Wednesday’s rebound as temporary relief rather than evidence of a meaningful improvement in underlying conditions. It pointed to several possible contributors: relief after the Binance hack, enthusiasm about the election results, hopes for slower AI spending and falling oil prices.
Jasper De Maere, an OTC trader at Wintermute, said the factors appeared short-lived. He highlighted continuing pressures, including escalating tensions in the Middle East and elevated inflation alongside a strong U.S. economy. He also noted that President Donald Trump still had two years remaining in office.
The distinction is between a change in sentiment and a change in conditions. In Wintermute’s assessment, the election-related bounce did not resolve the macroeconomic uncertainties facing crypto.
Regulation remained uncertain after the vote
Paul Howard, senior director at Wincent, said Democrats’ strengthened position in Congress could make bipartisan cooperation necessary for meaningful crypto legislation over the following two years. With the Clarity Act’s prospects uncertain, he expected the existing regulatory framework to remain largely intact until the next election cycle.
Ryan Kirkley, CEO of Global Settlement Network, said the election could delay legislation without fundamentally changing longer-term institutional demand for digital assets.
“Investors are still focused on liquidity, interest rates and the broader economy, and those factors will continue to influence the market regardless of which party controls Congress,” Kirkley said.
Wintermute identified $73,000 and $68,000 as levels to watch if bitcoin’s weakness continued. The firm said it would need to see bitcoin convincingly reclaim and hold $80,000 before adopting a more positive view. These were the firm’s conditional assessments at the time of the report, not established outcomes.
Original publication time: Nov. 6, 2026, at 04:10 UTC+8. This article covers the Nov. 5 trading session.