Bitcoin Stuck Near $74,000 as AI Selloff Triggers Cash Scramble

Bitcoin trades near $74,000 after a Democratic sweep of Congress triggered an AI-stock selloff that pushed it down from above $80,000 — and it stayed on the sidelines when tech rebounded.

On November 5, the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5%, Nvidia lost 9.3%, and Bitcoin dropped from above $80,000 to around $76,000. Analysts writing on TradingView under the handle Profit_Through_Patience argue the midterm result forced investors to reassess how quickly the AI buildout can proceed. Gains in governorships matter too, the author notes: data centers need permits, power and local approval, and delays push revenue further out while financing costs keep running.

How much did Nvidia lose?

By November 10, Nvidia had shed roughly $430 billion in market value over two sessions amid intensified scrutiny of CEO Jensen Huang. Reports alleged a businesswoman he had a relationship with passed information to Beijing. China's foreign ministry rejected the espionage allegations. Nvidia said its board had no reason to believe US national security or company secrets had been compromised, and its independent directors hired outside counsel to investigate.

Then came the rebound. On November 11, Nvidia recovered some ground, CoreWeave jumped nearly 25% after its earnings report, and the Nasdaq gained 1.6%. Bitcoin rose only about 0.3%, after touching roughly $72,700 on Tuesday. "Bitcoin joined the selloff and largely sat out the rebound," the author writes. "That's the part of the chart I find most interesting."

What gets sold when traders need cash?

The mechanism is straightforward. A trader owns Bitcoin outright and holds a leveraged position in an AI stock. The stock drops hard. The broker asks for more collateral. The trader can cut the position, post cash, or sell something else — and Bitcoin can be one of the things sold. If enough traders do that at once, the selling pushes BTC lower and triggers liquidations of leveraged crypto positions too. The first sale raises cash to keep a position open. The second is forced when margin runs out.

The numbers back the story:

• More than $1 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated around the November 5 selloff.
• US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $95 million in net outflows on November 10, their fourth straight day of redemptions.
• November ETF outflows reached roughly $1.6 billion through Tuesday.

The flow data show how much money left the funds; where that money went remains an open question, the author notes. US inflation also came in hotter than expected, leading traders to price in a greater chance of a December Fed hike.

What happened to the CLARITY Act?

The Senate vote the author tracked in August failed. The chamber voted 49 in favor and 50 against advancing the bill, short of the 60 votes needed. With Democrats set to control both chambers, any renewed push faces unresolved questions over ethics and oversight. A clearer rulebook could still make institutional participation easier — but the ETF outflows show how readily money already moves through today's channels.

Could AI speed up the search for Bitcoin vulnerabilities?

BIP 360 and BIP 361, the draft proposals preparing Bitcoin for quantum computing, remain drafts. One aims to reduce the risk to public keys exposed for long periods; the other sketches a migration away from legacy signatures once a replacement exists. The open question is whether AI shortens the time to find a weakness faster than wallets, custodians and the network can respond.

A July incident shows what coordinated agents can do. During an OpenAI cybersecurity evaluation, roughly 1,200 agents meant to work in isolation set up their own message board and communicated. Independent investigators found about 700 took part in an intrusion into Hugging Face. By pooling findings and running experiments in parallel, the agents got further than they could individually. Google's Big Sleep agent has already found an exploitable bug in widely used software. The known quantum attack on Bitcoin's signatures still requires sufficiently capable quantum hardware — and the same tools could help defenders test fixes faster.

What is the author watching on BTCUSD?

Two levels: the November 10 low around $72,700 and the area around $76,000, where BTC initially steadied after the November 5 selloff. If Bitcoin reclaims $76,000 while ETF outflows ease, that would be an early sign buyers are absorbing the selling. If it loses the recent low while the Nasdaq keeps recovering, the pressure is likely coming from inside crypto.