Bitcoin falls below $72,000 after $745 million in crypto liquidations

CoinGlass recorded more than $745 million in crypto derivatives liquidations over 24 hours, including approximately $630 million in longs, as Bitcoin fell below $72,000. Bitcoin dropped nearly 3% over 24 hours on Thursday morning, while total crypto market capitalization declined about 2.7% to $2.38 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap data.

The report’s headline cited $125 million in long liquidations, but that figure does not reconcile with the 24-hour CoinGlass figures above; the discrepancy remains unresolved.

What changed at Nvidia?

Nvidia announced that Jensen Huang had resigned as chief executive officer, president and board member, effective immediately. The company appointed Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO during its search for a permanent replacement and named Harvey C. Jones its first board chairman.

The announcement preceded a broad equity selloff. Nvidia traded nearly 10% lower in premarket trading, fell as much as 14% after the opening bell and recovered to about 8% lower early Thursday. Its market capitalization stood near $3.86 trillion, down approximately $1.1 trillion from $4.93 trillion on October 30.

Since its October 6 peak, Nvidia had lost about $1.9 trillion in market value. The stock had also erased roughly 22% of its value since the beginning of November.

Why did the leadership change matter?

The immediate market catalyst was Nvidia’s disclosure of Huang’s departure, which investors linked to uncertainty across semiconductor, artificial-intelligence infrastructure and crypto assets. The succession places an interim chief executive over strategy and capital spending while the permanent search continues. No transition plan or permanent-succession timetable appears in the disclosed facts.

According to a New York Times report published Wednesday, the departure came amid investigations into two reported extramarital affairs. One involved Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed International whom US intelligence officials suspect of spying for China. The other involved Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare.

China has denied the espionage allegations. Nvidia previously said it had no reason to believe company secrets or national security had been compromised. The disclosed facts do not tie either matter causally to the resignation, so the sequence establishes timing rather than a verified motive.

Takeaway: Nvidia has changed its leadership structure, but the public facts do not establish why Huang left.

How did the shock spread through technology stocks?

The leadership uncertainty weighed on semiconductor and infrastructure shares. The moves also created relative winners, suggesting investors were reassessing company-specific execution rather than abandoning the sector wholesale.

• Micron fell about 2.5%, Marvell Technology 3.8%, Sandisk 6% and Western Digital 3.7%.
• AI hardware suppliers Lumentum, Coherent and Dell each lost roughly 3% to 5%.
• Nvidia competitors AMD and Broadcom gained 3.7% and 5.6%, respectively, as investors assessed whether the disruption could benefit rival chipmakers.
• AI cloud providers, often called neoclouds, also weakened. CoreWeave fell more than 9%, reversing part of Wednesday’s rally after its earnings report.
• Nebius dropped approximately 16% after lowering its revenue outlook to the bottom of its previous guidance range. IREN and Applied Digital also traded lower.

The latest declines reversed part of Wednesday’s rebound, which stronger CoreWeave earnings had helped produce across AI infrastructure stocks. Investors were already weighing rising borrowing costs, heavy data-center spending and the sustainability of AI infrastructure investment before Nvidia announced the leadership change.

Takeaway: The selloff penalized financing-sensitive AI exposure, while two Nvidia competitors gained on the possibility of market-share gains.

How far did the crypto impact extend?

Bitcoin traded below $72,000, Ethereum briefly traded under $2,000, Solana hovered near $81 and XRP traded around $1.02. Longs accounted for approximately $630 million of CoinGlass’s liquidation total.

US spot crypto ETF redemptions added a second channel of pressure. Farside Investors reported $299.8 million in net outflows from Bitcoin funds on Wednesday, taking redemptions across the preceding five trading sessions to approximately $1.44 billion. Spot Ethereum ETFs recorded $144.8 million of Wednesday outflows and approximately $524 million over five sessions.

Together, the figures show forced deleveraging alongside sustained investor withdrawals, rather than a move confined to one crypto asset. They do not isolate whether the Nvidia shock, higher financing costs or pre-existing doubts about AI capital spending had the greater influence.

Takeaway: Crypto absorbed a material risk-off move through both leveraged positions and spot fund redemptions.

What comes next?

Nvidia has not disclosed a timetable for naming a permanent chief executive. The report also identifies no regulatory deadline or enforcement window.

Takeaway: The next trading session is the first market-structure checkpoint; until liquidation and ETF-flow evidence arrives, claims of a durable shift in risk appetite remain premature.