Bitcoin crashes below $76,000 as AI bubble fears wipe $2.5 trillion from Wall Street

Bitcoin hit an intraday low of $75,568 on Thursday and recovered to $76,830.67 as of press time, as a historic selloff in US technology stocks spilled into crypto markets. The market turmoil triggered more than $1 billion in liquidations across leveraged trading positions, affecting over 201,000 traders.

According to CoinGlass data, approximately $1 billion in leveraged positions had been liquidated over the previous 24 hours. Bullish positions accounted for $926.8 million, or nearly 89% of the total, compared with $118.2 million in bearish bets.

Market Wipeout

Bitcoin accounted for $264.2 million in liquidations, followed by Ethereum at $165.3 million and Solana at $33.5 million. The largest single liquidation was a $10.94 million ETH long position on Binance.

The losses coincided with a sharp reversal on Wall Street, where the Nasdaq Composite plunged 4.9% and entered correction territory, falling more than 10% below its October record. The S&P 500 declined 3.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed more than 1,100 points.

AI Spending Concerns

The Kobeissi Letter estimated that approximately $2.5 trillion had been wiped from US stock market valuations, with the Cboe Volatility Index surging more than 70%. The market commentary firm attributed the speed of the collapse to excessive leverage meeting an abrupt change in investor sentiment.

Political Backlash

The selloff followed the Nov. 4 rally when investors initially welcomed Democrats' sweeping midterm victories. However, attention quickly shifted toward implications for the artificial intelligence industry, whose enormous capital expenditure commitments have helped sustain US equity valuations.

Investors are increasingly concerned that tighter political oversight, rising construction costs, and local opposition to data centers could undermine expected growth in AI infrastructure spending. According to Ballotpedia, 46 of 47 local data-center-related measures across the US in 2026 favored tighter restrictions.

Nvidia fell below $200 for the first time since August, while the Nasdaq 100 declined approximately 5.5%, putting it on course for its steepest daily loss since April 2025. Economist Mohamed El-Erian questioned whether the rest of the US economy could maintain momentum if technology investment slowed.