Election Cheers Vanish: $BTC Slides as $1.08B in Crypto Positions Gets Liquidated

Bitcoin’s post-election rally evaporated Thursday, November 5, 2026, as a technology-led Wall Street selloff pushed $BTC below $76,000 and triggered $1.08 billion in crypto liquidations over 24 hours. CoinGlass data showed 209,826 traders were liquidated: $956 million from long positions and $130.78 million from shorts. Earlier, roughly $428 million in crypto longs were liquidated in one hour. Bitcoin fell from above $80,800 to lows reported at $75,572 and $75,463, its lowest level since Sept. 16, while $ETH dropped to $2,239 and Solana lost 5.9%. Arthur Hayes had flagged major downside risk as the asset initially traded up 2% to $79,676 following the Democratic Party’s win in the midterm elections.

The reversal followed a technology rout that exposed investors’ concerns about AI spending, interest rates and data-center expansion after Democrats won both chambers of Congress. The Nasdaq Composite fell 4.2%, was reported down nearly 5% intraday and also dropped 5.5% in another session measure; the S&P 500 lost 2.6% in late-morning trading and was later down roughly 3.8%. Nvidia lost 9.3%, AMD plunged 17.3%, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped about 8%, and CoreWeave and Nebius fell by double digits. Tesla tumbled roughly 9.5%, extending losses after Elon Musk heavily backed Republican candidates. The $3,000,000,000,000 erased from the US stock market was more than the GDP of Russia, according to a post from Ted.

Political uncertainty added pressure. Voters in at least 29 U.S. jurisdictions backed restrictions on data-center development, although not every measure is binding, and UBS estimates potential pauses could threaten 30% of planned U.S. data-center capacity additions in 2028, per Reuters. “We suspect there is going to be some scrutiny on this aggressive AI buildout,” Swissquote senior analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya told Reuters. Bitwise Europe analyst André Dragosch said the Democratic sweep was “largely priced in,” while Ted Parkhill, chief executive of Incline Investment Management, told Reuters, “The market's moving from the promise of AI to the price of AI.” Democratic control also complicates efforts to revive the stalled Clarity Act, a proposed federal rulebook for digital assets. The new Congress will not take office until January.

Leverage accelerated Bitcoin’s decline. About $378 million in short positions were liquidated in one hour as Bitcoin pushed above $80,000 on Wednesday, but the subsequent selloff forced large closures on the other side of the market. The largest single liquidation was a $10.94 million ETH long on Binance, and one trader lost 201 $BTC, worth $15.6 million, through eight successive forced closures, according to Lookonchain. Binance captured 44.3% of overall liquidations. Bitcoin accounted for $282.37 million, followed by Ethereum at $173.75 million, with 89.4% of Bitcoin liquidations coming from long positions.

Selling pressure extended beyond futures. Whalio’s Binance spot data showed $141.2 million more aggressive buying than selling on November 4, when the buy-side share of trading volume reached 54%. By late November 5, spot sellers exceeded buyers by 10.8% of turnover over 24 hours, while futures sellers led by 1.8% of their market’s turnover. Binance perpetual futures open interest fell 7.1%, and CryptoQuant’s Coinbase Premium Index deteriorated from −0.09% on Wednesday to −0.19% early Thursday. BlackRock’s IBIT recorded $201.2 million in ETF outflows on Wednesday, extending its four-day withdrawal streak, although US Bitcoin ETFs collectively attracted $74.6 million, largely through Fidelity. Wallets linked to Trump Media also transferred 4,259 BTC, worth roughly $342 million, to Crypto.com, raising concerns before a November 30 debt repayment window; no sale was confirmed.

Bitcoin was testing the psychologically important $75,000 level after briefly breaking below its 50-week simple moving average at $75,733. A decisive break could expose the 200-day moving average near $73,200, while a move above $80,000 and approximately $81,300, the 30-day moving average identified in Reuters’ technical analysis, represented additional levels in the recovery. “My thesis on #Bitcoin hasn’t changed… The past 24 hours have been heavily influenced by leverage trading… Now, $75,000 remains the best, obvious spot for longs, and it coincides with Nasdaq’s low, which has been targeted at 26,500…,” Michaël van de Poppe said on X. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index stood at a neutral 50, compared with 73, or greed, last month and 34 the previous day.