Bitcoin’s rise after the elections was short-lived. After hitting the $80,000 mark on Wednesday, it fell to $75,700 on Thursday, which is 6% less than the previous day, as the AI stocks crash spread on Wall Street. Ether also plunged by more than 7% to $2,247, as per The Block .
Liquidations are not ETF redemptions
The crypto market crash caused leveraged investors to exit their positions. According to data from CoinGlass and quoted by The Block, $1.1 billion was liquidated within only 24 hours, amounting to almost 211,000 positions. In one of the four-hour periods alone there were losses of $879.92 million, including $818.90 million in long positions.
The liquidation numbers show the forced exit of leveraged positions, not the money being withdrawn from Bitcoin ETFs. ETF flow data indicate something else entirely: the net flow of funds into or out of these ETFs.
What FarSide’s flow data shows
The Spot Bitcoin ETFs had already seen outflows of money just before Thursday’s dip. As per FarSide, on October 30, the funds recorded a withdrawal of $643.2 million, followed by $398.6 million on November 2, and $115.6 million on November 3. Over the three-day period, outflows came up to $1.16 billion.
The trend changed on November 4, when the ETFs suffered a dramatically large net inflow of $74.6 million. But the results told a tale of two funds. Fidelity’s FBTC secured $236.7 million in assets while BlackRock’s IBIT was down by $201.2 million. The count for November 5 is not complete yet, with several companies yet to report.
The withdrawals occurred after a previous wave of selling. Cryptopolitan reported a single-day outflow of $487 million in October. Based on the recent withdrawals, the inflow on November 4 may have been just a temporary break and not a permanent improvement in ETF demand.
Why the Nasdaq sold off
The uncertainty surrounding Bitcoin ETF demand coincided with a sharp selloff in AI stocks. The Nasdaq closed Thursday down 5.5% at 24,315.00, or 11.9% below its October peak. The S&P 500 lost 4.4%, while Nvidia fell 9.3%.
Investors are questioning when costly AI projects will pay off. High borrowing costs and possible post-election restrictions on data centers have added to those concerns. Swissquote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya told Reuters :
“Coming into this earnings season, there were worries that AI spending was too much.”
J.P. Morgan’s Michael Cembalest reported an 8% drop in hedge funds’ gross long-short exposure and roughly $4 trillion in AI-related off-balance-sheet commitments. These are not immediately payable debts. He also warned that 37.5 gigawatts of planned 2028 data-center capacity could face construction pauses, with another 15 gigawatts facing additional conditions. Neither outcome amounts to confirmed cancellations.
AI Stock Selloff Hits Bitcoin: Nvidia, Nasdaq and ETF Flows After 2026 Midterms
Correlation, not proof of causation
Bitcoin’s growing connection with technology stocks helps explain why investors are watching both markets closely. Foundry Labs found a 0.41 correlation between Bitcoin and Nasdaq-100 tracker QQQ over 63 days. It also found that publicly traded Bitcoin miners behave more like AI infrastructure stocks.
S&P Global has also noticed Bitcoin traveling parallel to stocks when investors step back from risk. A study conducted in 2025 showed that election-associated volatility affected crypto, stocks, and oil. However, these findings do not mean that the AI-induced selloff was responsible for Thursday’s Bitcoin fall.
Where analysts see the next levels
With Bitcoin struggling to recover, Wintermute described Wednesday’s rebound as short-lived optimism. The firm identified $73,000 and $68,000 as levels to watch. It also wants Bitcoin to hold above $80,000 before taking a more positive view.
Political instability may exert additional strain. According to Paul Howard from Wincent, the recent gains made by Democrats in Congress could complicate the passage of the Clarity Act even more. At the same time, upcoming ETF reports will help to show if the money that came in on November 4 was a recovery in demand or just a break in the outflows.
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