Bitcoin falls below $72,000 as $125M in crypto longs liquidated

Bitcoin fell below $72,000 on Thursday morning, dropping nearly 3% over 24 hours as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s resignation triggered renewed selling across AI stocks, semiconductor companies and crypto assets.

Nvidia shares plunged nearly 10% in premarket trading and fell as much as 14% at the opening bell before recovering some losses. The stock was down about 8% in early trading, extending a selloff that has erased roughly 22% of its value since the beginning of November.

The decline has wiped approximately $1.1 trillion from Nvidia’s market capitalization since October 30, when the company was valued at $4.93 trillion. Its valuation fell to around $3.86 trillion in early Thursday trading. Since its October 6 peak, Nvidia has lost approximately $1.9 trillion in market value.

The selloff followed Nvidia’s announcement that Huang had resigned as CEO, president and board member, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress was appointed interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement. Harvey C. Jones was named the company’s first board chairman.

Huang’s 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, according to a New York Times report published Wednesday.

China has denied the espionage allegations, while Nvidia previously said it had no reason to believe company secrets or national security had been compromised.

The leadership shakeup weighed on semiconductor and AI infrastructure stocks. Micron declined about 2.5%, Marvell Technology fell 3.8%, Sandisk lost 6%, and Western Digital dropped 3.7%. AI hardware suppliers Lumentum, Coherent and Dell also recorded losses of approximately 3% to 5%.

However, Nvidia competitors AMD and Broadcom moved higher, gaining 3.7% and 5.6%, respectively, as investors assessed whether the leadership disruption could benefit rival chipmakers.

AI cloud providers, commonly known as neoclouds, also came under pressure. CoreWeave fell more than 9%, reversing part of Wednesday’s rally following its earnings report. Nebius plunged approximately 16% after lowering its revenue outlook to the bottom of its previous guidance range, while IREN and Applied Digital also traded lower.

The broader selloff extended into crypto markets, with Bitcoin slipping below $72,000 and Ethereum briefly falling under $2,000. Solana traded near $81, while XRP hovered around $1.02.

The total crypto market capitalization declined approximately 2.7% over 24 hours to $2.38 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Crypto derivatives recorded more than $745 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, including approximately $630 million in long positions, according to CoinGlass data.

Selling pressure also continued across US spot crypto ETFs. Bitcoin funds recorded $299.8 million in net outflows on Wednesday, bringing redemptions over the past five trading sessions to approximately $1.44 billion, according to Farside Investors.

Spot Ethereum ETFs registered another $144.8 million in outflows Wednesday, bringing their five session total to approximately $524 million.

The latest declines reversed part of Wednesday’s rebound, when CoreWeave’s stronger earnings helped lift AI infrastructure stocks. Investors were already weighing concerns over rising borrowing costs, heavy data center spending and the sustainability of AI infrastructure investment.