Election High Vaporized: $BTC Crashes Below $76K as Leverage Gets Liquidated 🎰

Bitcoin ($BTC) fell below $76,000 on Thursday, November 5, 2026, retreating from a post-election peak above $80,800 as a technology-led Wall Street selloff erased risk appetite and triggered $1.08 billion in crypto liquidations over 24 hours. According to CoinGlass, 209,826 traders were liquidated, including $956 million in long positions and $130.78 million in shorts. Bitcoin accounted for $282.37 million in liquidations, of which 89.4% came from longs, while Ethereum accounted for $173.75 million. Binance captured 44.3% of total liquidations, and the largest single liquidation was a $10.94 million ETH long on Binance.

The reversal followed Bitcoin’s climb above $80,000 after the Democratic Party won the US midterm elections. Approximately $378 million in Bitcoin shorts had been liquidated in one hour during the Wednesday rally, indicating that short covering contributed to the initial move. On Thursday, $BTC traded as low as $75,463, its lowest level since Sept. 16, and briefly dropped below its 50-week simple moving average of $75,733. A separate account of the session recorded a low of $75,572, while Ethereum reached $2,239 and Solana fell 5.9%. Spot sellers exceeded buyers by 10.8% of turnover over 24 hours by late November 5, after buyers had led by 54% on November 4. Binance perpetual futures open interest fell 7.1%, and CryptoQuant’s Coinbase Premium Index declined from −0.09% on Wednesday to −0.19% early Thursday.

Wall Street’s retreat intensified the pressure. The S&P 500 lost about 2.6% in late-morning trading before falling roughly 3.8% in another account of the session, while the Nasdaq Composite sank nearly 4%, dropped 4.2%, and was later reported down 5.5%, its largest single-day decline since April 2025. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped about 8%, Nvidia lost 9.3%, AMD plunged 17.3%, CoreWeave and Nebius fell by double digits, and Tesla tumbled roughly 9.5%. Investors weighed concerns about AI spending, interest rates, Democratic control of Congress and possible restrictions on data-center development. UBS estimates that potential pauses could threaten 30% of planned US data-center capacity additions in 2028, while voters in at least 29 US jurisdictions backed restrictions on data-center development.

“The market’s moving from the promise of AI to the price of AI,” Ted Parkhill, chief executive of Incline Investment Management, told Reuters. Bitwise Europe analyst André Dragosch also told Decrypt the Democratic sweep was “largely priced in.” “We suspect there is going to be some scrutiny on this aggressive AI buildout,” Swissquote senior analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya told Reuters. 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.

ETF flows reversed alongside the market decline. US spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs recorded approximately $530 million in combined net outflows on Thursday, with roughly $430 million withdrawn from Bitcoin funds and approximately $100 million from Ether funds, according to SoSoValue. Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) led Bitcoin ETF withdrawals with approximately $200 million, reversing roughly $237 million in Wednesday inflows. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) recorded another $105 million in net outflows, extending its withdrawal streak to five consecutive trading sessions, with more than $1 billion leaving the fund since October 30. Separately, BlackRock’s IBIT registered $201.2 million in ETF outflows on Wednesday, while US Bitcoin ETFs collectively attracted $74.6 million that day, largely through Fidelity.

A single high-leverage trader lost 201 $BTC, worth about $15.6 million, through eight successive liquidations, according to Lookonchain. Bitcoin was testing the psychologically important $75,000 level, with a 200-day moving average near $73,200 below it and the 30-day moving average identified in Reuters’ technical analysis at approximately $81,300 above it. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index stood at a neutral 50, compared with 73 last month and 34 a day earlier. “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. Wall-linked wallets also transferred 4,259 BTC, worth roughly $342 million, to Crypto.com, although no sale has been confirmed.