Originally published by Decrypt on November 6, 2026, at 02:05:21 UTC+8, covering the November 5 U.S. trading session.
Bitcoin fell below $76,000 as a sharp U.S. stock selloff erased the previous session’s rally and brought market-wide trading halts into focus. The S&P 500 dropped as much as 3.8% on Thursday, though it had not reached its first circuit-breaker threshold when Decrypt published its report.
The crypto decline wiped out Bitcoin’s post-election recovery. According to an earlier Decrypt report cited in the article, approximately $428 million in leveraged crypto long positions were liquidated within an hour.
AI and chip stocks lead the retreat
At around 11 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq Composite was down nearly 5%, while the S&P 500 had fallen 3.2%. Nvidia lost more than 6%, and the broader semiconductor index plunged nearly 11%.
The retreat followed Wednesday’s rally after the Democratic Party’s sweeping midterm election victories. That session, the S&P 500 gained 1.6%—its strongest daily performance in three months—and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed more than 1,500 points. Thursday’s losses erased that rally in a single session.
Investors were concerned that Democratic victories could bring stricter oversight of data-center construction, according to the report. That was a concern about potential policy changes, not an announcement of new restrictions.
“We suspect there is going to be some scrutiny on this aggressive AI buildout,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, told Reuters.
Persistent inflation concerns and uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate decision also weighed on stocks. Investors were awaiting Friday’s October employment report for further clues about monetary policy.
Circuit-breaker concern was not an actual halt
U.S. market-wide circuit breakers are based on the S&P 500’s decline from its previous closing price:
- 7%: A 15-minute trading halt if reached before 3:25 p.m. ET.
- 13%: Another 15-minute suspension if reached before 3:25 p.m. ET.
- 20%: Trading stops for the rest of the day, regardless of when the threshold is reached.
These rules cover the entire U.S. equity market, including companies listed on Nasdaq and other exchanges—not just S&P 500 constituents.
At the index’s reported maximum decline of 3.8%, it remained 3.2 percentage points short of the first threshold. The distinction matters: traders were watching the possibility of a halt, but none had been triggered at the time of the report.
A reversal after Trump’s celebration
The selloff came less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump celebrated stock-market records on Truth Social, writing that Americans’ retirement accounts were going “through the roof.” Trump had repeatedly cited market performance as evidence of his administration’s economic success.
For crypto readers, the immediate development was the combination of falling Bitcoin prices and leveraged-long liquidations alongside the equity selloff. The report did not establish that any single political or policy concern caused Bitcoin’s decline.