Bitcoin slides below $76,000 as AI stocks crater after mid-session

Crypto’s post-election rebound didn’t last. On Thursday, November 5, bitcoin fell from over $80.8k to below $76k. strong liquidation in chip and AI stocks spread across markets, with BTC falling “tick for tick” alongside a Nasdaq that slipped around 4%, according to CoinDesk.

• The spark: Wednesday’s after-hours results gave token sellers an opening. Qualcomm fell by double digits after smartphone chip sales missed estimates, while Arm’s forecast was just a hair above consensus. This hit a sector already battered by a 15.4% fall in October in the Philadelphia Semiconductor index.

• The political overhang: Tuesday’s Democratic midterms included Texas, where Gina Hinojosa won the race for governor on a commitment to suspend the construction of data centers. Texas accounts for more than a quarter of planned U.S. data center capacity through 2030, so investors are now anticipating slower AI development.

• Taking advantage of the flush: More than $1 billion in crypto derivatives positions were liquidated in 24 hours, marking the biggest rise since at least October 28-29, while open interest in BTC futures fell below $26 billion for the first time since mid-September. At the time of writing, BTC is near $75.8k (down 5.7% in 24 hours) and ETH is near $2,250 (down 7.2%). Privacy coins XMR and ZEC fared better, only down single digits.

• The miners struck twice: Bitcoin miners who have turned to hosting AI are experiencing both the decline in crypto and backlash from data centers, including Riot, which leased Texas capacity to Anthropic. IREN fell about 18% on a report from Bloomberg that Microsoft is more closely monitoring its data center projects with IREN, Nebius and Nscale.