The Nasdaq Took Bitcoin Down With It: $76,000, $1.25 Billion in Liquidations, and a Jobs Report at 8:30

Wednesday's story was a short squeeze lifting bitcoin back above $80,000. Thursday's is the mirror image: the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52% — its worst day since April 2025 — and bitcoin went with it, sliding from above $80,000 to about $76,000. The post-midterm rebound lasted roughly a day. What comes next depends on a jobs report due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern — and whether this was a one-day equity shock or the start of something longer. General information only — not financial advice.

The Nasdaq led, crypto followed

The trigger, as far as anyone can name one, was equities. The Nasdaq's 5.52% drop on Thursday was its steepest one-day fall since April 2025; the Dow lost 1,833 points and the S&P 500 fell 4.35%. The stated fear: Democratic control of Congress will slow the AI data-center buildout behind the rally — and the slide spread to crypto within hours of the US open. Bitcoin's 24-hour range ran from a high near $80,721 to a low near $75,230, per CoinGecko data cited by Crypto Times, and most of the decline came Thursday, shortly after US stocks opened.

Correlation is not causation, and the honest read is narrower: stocks and crypto fell at the same time, in the same session, for the same stated reason — evaporating risk appetite. Bitcoin steadied overnight, bouncing from about $75,200 near 23:00 UTC Thursday to around $76,150 by Friday morning. That bounce is small against the drop, and it leaves bitcoin below both its 20-day average of $79,696 and its 50-day average of $82,000, per CoinGecko closes cited by CoinStats. It is the second-lowest of the past 30 daily closes, and the 30-day low of $76,006 is the line traders are watching.

Leverage did the rest

A 5% spot move does not liquidate $1.25 billion on its own — leverage does. CoinGlass data put 24-hour liquidations at about $1.25 billion, with longs accounting for nearly 89% of the total. CoinStats' read put longs at $1.12 billion against $150 million of shorts, across 241,242 accounts. Bitcoin accounted for about $335 million and ether about $214 million; the largest single order was a $10.94 million ETH/USDT long on Binance, closed at $2,243.86. Binance handled 45.2% of all liquidations.

The cascade works the same way in both directions: forced selling pushes the price down, liquidating the next layer of longs, which pushes it down again. Wednesday's squeeze ran that machine upward; Thursday ran it downward. What did not happen is a full leverage washout: perpetual futures open interest stood at about $67.40 billion, per CoinGecko data, and bitcoin open interest actually rose to $22.1 billion from $21.8 billion, according to CoinDesk. Leverage is still in the system — the next sharp move still has fuel.

The ETF bid went quiet again

Underneath the leverage story is the slower one: institutional flows. US spot bitcoin ETFs recorded a net outflow of $430.2 million on Thursday, per Farside data cited by CoinStats — FBTC lost $199.9 million, IBIT $105 million, GBTC $49.9 million, EZBC $32.9 million, HODL $23.6 million, and ARKB $18.9 million. IBIT's outflow extends its streak to five straight sessions, per CoinDesk.

The contrast with Wednesday is the point. On November 4, the ETFs took in $74.6 million, ending three days of outflows — the inflow that accompanied the squeeze back above $80,000. One day later, the flow reversed by more than $500 million. ETF flows have become bitcoin's swing factor: the story on the way up Wednesday, and the story on the way down Thursday. The week's earlier outflows — $643 million Monday, $399 million Tuesday — make the ETF complex a net seller for the week by a wide margin, and the $74 million Wednesday inflow looks like a pause, not a turn.

What 8:30 a.m. decides

The next scheduled test is the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation report for October, due Friday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Economists polled by FactSet expect payrolls to rise by 65,000. The jobs number moves rate expectations, and rate expectations move risk appetite: a hot report argues against near-term rate cuts and extends the risk-off mood; a soft one could give stocks and crypto room to recover. KuCoin's daily report frames the levels plainly: support around $75,000–$76,000 is in focus, and a failure to reclaim and hold $78,000 could limit the recovery.

The week has now produced two opposite stories in two days — a squeeze up, then a rout down — and neither, on its own, says much about where bitcoin goes from here. The $80,000 reclaim was forced buying, not new demand. The $76,000 slide was an equity shock plus forced selling, not a verdict on bitcoin itself. What would change the picture is a flow signal: ETF inflows returning for more than a day, or open interest falling as leverage leaves. Until then, the market is trading the macro tape, and its next line is printed at 8:30 a.m.

The odd ones out

Not everything fell in line. Privacy coins held up better, with monero down 3.2% over 24 hours against bitcoin's 5.3%, per CoinDesk. World Liberty Financial's WLFI rose about 3.5% after the Trump-backed project said it plans more token buybacks, partly funded by fees from reserves backing its USD1 stablecoin — still down more than 66% from its highs. And the CoinDesk Memecoin Index led the market with a 4% gain since midnight UTC. None of these is a safe haven; in a liquidation-driven selloff, the assets with the least leverage attached fall the least.

Sources, all checked this morning: bitcoin at about $76,123 (−5.3%), the 20-day average of $79,695.80, the 50-day of $82,000.12, the 30-day range of $76,005.51–$84,082.27, the $2.58 trillion total market cap (−6.49%), and the $430.2 million ETF outflow with fund-by-fund figures via CoinStats, "Best Crypto to Buy Now: Bitcoin Slips to $76K as $1.26 Billion in Longs Gets Liquidated" (coinstats.app); the Nasdaq's 5.52% fall as its worst since April 2025, the Democratic-Congress AI-buildout fear, the $75,200 overnight low and the $76,150 bounce, IBIT's five-session outflow streak, the 8:30 a.m. jobs report with a 65,000 FactSet expectation, the $22.1 billion bitcoin open interest, WLFI buybacks, monero holding up, and the memecoin index gain via CoinDesk, "Bitcoin steadies after AI-led selloff as eyes turn to latest U.S. jobs figures" (coindesk.com); the $75,649.64 price, the $75,229.51–$80,721.32 range, the $1.25 billion liquidation total with 89% longs, the 45.2% Binance share, the Dow's 1,833-point loss, and the $67.40 billion perpetual open interest via Crypto Times, "Bitcoin Price Today: BTC Slides to $75.6K as Crypto Liquidations Top $1.25B After Nasdaq Rout" (cryptotimes.io); the $76,087.90 price, ether at $2,238.01, the Fear & Greed reading of 28 (from 50), the $74.57 million November 4 ETF inflow, and the $75,000–$76,000 support / $78,000 resistance framing via KuCoin, "Crypto Daily Market Report" (kucoin.com); the caution that simultaneous stress does not establish a single cause, and the $75,965 Phemex screen price, via Phemex, "Why Did Bitcoin Drop? BTC and Liquidations on Nov. 6, 2026" (phemex.com); the Wednesday squeeze context via yesterday's Nova story.