Bitcoin Price Falls Below $72,000 as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Steps Down and Strategy (MSTR) Slides
Bitcoin fell below $72,000 on Thursday morning, its lowest level since mid-August, after Nvidia announced CEO Jensen Huang’s resignation and Strategy shares dropped following MSCI’s confirmation of an index exit.
The selling pressure intensified after Wednesday’s close, pushing the price from about $74,700 to near $73,400 by 6 p.m. ET.
A second leg lower began around 6 a.m., briefly dipping to about $72,200 shortly after 8 a.m. before accelerating to a low of about $71,670 around 9:29 a.m.
The decline erased gains made after a hotter-than-expected inflation report on Tuesday and now places the asset roughly $31,200 below its level from one year ago.
Tech Selloff and Leadership Change
Nvidia announced that Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive, and board member, effective immediately.
The company appointed CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO and Harvey C. Jones as its first board chair while searching for a permanent successor.
The resignation follows reports of extramarital relationships, including one raising national security concerns in Washington.
Nvidia shares fell about 13% at Thursday’s open, dragging down the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures, while tech stocks like Intel, CoreWeave, and data center firms traded lower.
Index Removal and Fund Outflows
Strategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, fell about 7% after MSCI confirmed it will remove the stock from the MSCI USA Index, MSCI World, and ACWI indexes effective Nov. 30.
Index funds will sell MSTR shares, not bitcoin, but the weaker stock makes it harder for the company to raise money for new purchases.
Spot bitcoin ETFs lost $299.8 million on Wednesday, their fifth straight day of net outflows, with BlackRock’s IBIT accounting for $269.7 million of those redemptions.
The selling pressure was compounded by initial jobless claims rising to 200,000 last week, above the 195,000 economists had expected.
Rate Hike Expectations and Outlook
Traders still see a December Federal Reserve rate hike as a certainty, with about a 10% chance of a half-point move, according to CME FedWatch.
Higher rates make an asset that pays no interest harder to hold, keeping a lid on the bitcoin price all week.
The next test comes quickly, with Cisco and Applied Materials reporting results after Thursday’s close and the Producer Price Index due on Friday.
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