Bitcoin Fell Below US$75,000 and Has Just Posted a Fifth Straight Weekly Loss While Stocks Rallied. Why Did Crypto Stop Following the Nasdaq?

For most of the past few months, the easiest way to guess Bitcoin’s next move was to look at the Nasdaq. Both slid through October as investors questioned AI spending. Last Thursday, when the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% in a single day, Bitcoin fell about 5.4% between the same two US closing bells. One analysis put the 30-day correlation between the two, a measure of how closely they move together, at 0.80 out of a possible 1.

Then on Monday the link snapped. The Nasdaq jumped 2.7% and the S&P 500 had its best day since April, led by a 7% bounce in chip stocks. Bitcoin went the other way: from Friday’s US close to Monday’s, it lost about 1.3%. At 3pm Malaysian time today it was trading at about US$74,566, roughly RM302,000, after slipping below US$75,000 over the weekend. Sunday’s close sealed its fifth losing week in a row, its lowest weekly close since August, and it now sits about 41% below its record of US$126,080 from October 2025.

So why would an asset that has traded like a tech stock refuse to bounce with tech? The answer matters for anyone in Malaysia holding Bitcoin or trading the Nasdaq.

📌 Key points

• Bitcoin was at about US$74,566 at 3pm Malaysian time, after touching roughly US$73,500, its lowest since August. Its fifth straight weekly loss closed at US$74,851.
• On Thursday it fell with the Nasdaq. On Monday the Nasdaq rose 2.7% and Bitcoin fell 1.3%. So far crypto has followed tech down, but not back up.
• Crypto has its own sellers: US Bitcoin funds lost US$1.28 billion in the week to 6 November and US$201 million more on Monday, and the miner MARA sold US$1.1 billion of Bitcoin in six weeks.
• Washington has turned from tailwind to headwind: after last week’s Democratic sweep, investors doubt that the main US crypto law will pass this year.
• Crypto never closes. Bad news from Nvidia and stalled US-Iran talks landed early on Monday, Malaysian time, before stock markets opened, and crypto saw more than US$1 billion of forced selling.

Same days, different directions

Period	Nasdaq Composite	Bitcoin
Wednesday 4 Nov (election result)	+1.4%	+3.1%
Thursday 5 Nov (AI sell-off)	−5.5%	−5.4%
Friday 6 Nov	+1.1%	−0.2%
Friday close to Monday close (9 Nov)	+2.7%	−1.3%
Since the Nasdaq’s record close on 6 Oct	−8.5%	about −13%
Losing streak	4 weeks (to 6 Nov)	5 weeks (to 8 Nov)

Bitcoin is measured between US closing times. On the down days they moved together; on the up days they did not.

Reason one: crypto has its own sellers

Among the biggest buyers of Bitcoin since 2024 have been US exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, which let ordinary investors own Bitcoin through a stock-market account. Last week they were sellers. Data from Farside Investors shows net outflows on four of five days, adding up to US$1.28 billion, the largest weekly withdrawal since late June. BlackRock’s fund alone accounted for about US$1.21 billion. Monday brought another US$201 million out, according to SoSoValue, on the very day stocks rallied.

Miners are selling too. MARA, one of the largest listed Bitcoin miners, disclosed with its results overnight that it sold 13,597 Bitcoin, about US$1.1 billion, in roughly six weeks, 40% of what it held at the end of September. Most of the money repaid loans, and the company said it intends “to continue using bitcoin to build cash for purposes such as AI infrastructure opportunities”. In other words, part of the AI boom that lifts the Nasdaq is being funded by selling Bitcoin.

The US$6.3 billion Binance hack of 29 October still hangs in the background. Withdrawals have resumed and daily outflows from Binance have calmed, from US$6.1 billion on 2 November to about US$458 million, according to DefiLlama, and Bitfinex analysts say “much of the hack’s impact now looks priced in”.

Reason two: Washington changed sides

Much of crypto’s rise since 2024 rested on a friendly Washington, with a Republican Congress backing pro-crypto laws. Last week Democrats won both chambers. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a long-time critic of the industry, is set to lead the Senate Banking Committee, and Bitfire Research says investors are now reassessing whether the CLARITY Act, the bill meant to set clear rules for which US regulator oversees crypto, can pass before the year ends. HashKey’s Tim Sun put it simply: “All of these factors leave the crypto market facing strong headwinds.”

For tech stocks the election risk was narrower, mainly data-centre rules, and by Monday investors decided the chip sell-off had gone too far. For crypto the risk is to its whole rulebook, and Monday changed nothing there.

Reason three: crypto never sleeps, and it borrows heavily

Stock markets close at night and on weekends; crypto never does. On Sunday evening in New York, which was 7am on Monday in Malaysia, Nvidia’s board said it had opened an investigation into chief executive Jensen Huang over a relationship with a businesswoman whom US intelligence believes is a Chinese spy, CNBC reported, while Washington said talks with Iran had made no progress. Stock investors mostly had to wait; crypto traders could sell at once, many with borrowed money.

When a leveraged bet loses enough, the exchange closes it automatically. That is called a liquidation, and each forced sale pushes the price lower and triggers the next one. More than US$1 billion of crypto positions were liquidated in 24 hours, US$913 million of them bets on rising prices, according to CoinGlass data reported by CoinDesk. By the time New York opened, stock investors had looked past Nvidia, which fell about 4%, and bought other chipmakers. Bitcoin had already been knocked down.

That left recent buyers holding a loss. Glassnode, which tracks blockchain data, says short-term holders slipped into a small unrealised loss by Sunday and that “loss realization now clearly dominates, a sign of fear-driven selling”. People who bought higher often sell into any bounce to get their money back, which caps rallies. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a daily mood gauge from 0 to 100, read 32 today, in “fear”, after touching 25, “extreme fear”, on Saturday.

So is this a real decoupling?

Not yet. Correlation runs from −1 to +1: at +1 two assets always move together, at 0 there is no link. One day does not break a relationship that has held for a month; our own rough calculation still puts it around 0.6 after Monday. What the past few weeks show is a lopsided link: Bitcoin has followed the Nasdaq down but not up. A true decoupling would be Bitcoin rising while tech falls, and that has not happened.

Rates are the common thread. Traders put the chance of a Fed rate hike on 9 December at about 80%, up from 69% a month ago. Bitcoin pays no interest and, unlike shares, has no earnings to fall back on. Tonight’s October inflation report, due at 9.30pm Malaysian time, could move both. Analysts at BRN wrote: “Until ETF flows turn positive and the Fed turns dovish, the path of least resistance remains lower.” History is mixed: Bitcoin has had five or more losing weeks in a row only three times since 2017, and each time it fell further first, by 23%, 54% and 8%. After the last one, in February, it was 15% higher 12 weeks later.

What it means for a Malaysian trader

• Do not treat Bitcoin as a stand-in for the Nasdaq. On Monday NAS100 and Bitcoin went in opposite directions. If you hold both thinking they mirror or hedge each other, check what you actually own.
• Expect bigger swings. Options traders lifted Bitcoin’s expected one-week volatility to about 43% from 33%, and the most active options were bets on a fall to US$70,000–72,000. Size positions for that.
• “Digital gold” has not acted like gold. December gold futures were near US$4,127 at 3pm, up about 1.3% since Friday’s US close, while Bitcoin was down about 1.6% over the same stretch.
• Bursa did not follow Wall Street either. After the Deepavali break, the FBM KLCI opened 10 points higher at 1,626.55 and then fell to 1,600.42 by the midday break, down 1.0%, with banks weak. The ringgit opened slightly firmer at 4.0550 to the dollar.
• Where you buy matters. Use an exchange registered with the Securities Commission Malaysia (the list is on sc.com.my). Binance is not registered here, and its US$6.3 billion hack was a reminder that coins left on any exchange are only as safe as the exchange.

FAQ

Why is Bitcoin falling in November 2026?

Several things at once: US Bitcoin funds lost US$1.28 billion last week, miners such as MARA are selling, the Democratic sweep has put US crypto laws in doubt, more than US$1 billion of leveraged bets were forced shut, and traders see a December Fed rate hike as likely.

Why didn’t Bitcoin go up when the Nasdaq rallied on Monday?

The Nasdaq’s rally was a rebound in chip stocks after a sharp sell-off. Bitcoin had its own sellers, including another US$201 million out of Bitcoin funds, and had already taken the weekend’s Nvidia headline through forced selling while stock markets were shut.

Is Bitcoin still correlated with the Nasdaq?

Mostly, yes. One analysis put the 30-day correlation at 0.80 before Monday, and one day of divergence does not break that. Lately Bitcoin falls with tech but does not always recover with it.

What is a crypto liquidation?

When traders use borrowed money and the price moves against them, the exchange automatically closes the position once their deposit is used up. Those forced sales push prices lower and can trigger more.

Is now a good time to buy Bitcoin in Malaysia?

Nobody can promise where it goes next. It is about 41% below its record, sentiment is in “fear” and volatility is rising. If you choose to buy, use an SC-registered exchange and only risk money you can afford to see fall sharply.

Summary

Bitcoin slipped below US$75,000, closed a fifth straight losing week and fell on a day the Nasdaq jumped 2.7%. It has not broken away from tech so much as stopped bouncing with it. Three things explain the split: crypto-only sellers, from ETF outflows to miners raising cash for AI; a Democratic Congress that has put US crypto rules in doubt; and a 24-hour market full of borrowed money that took the weekend’s bad news alone. Rates still tie the two together, and tonight’s US inflation report is the next test. For Malaysian traders, treat Bitcoin and the Nasdaq as separate risks.

Disclaimer

This article is for education only and is not investment advice. Prices and figures are from market data, exchange and fund data, and news reports as of 3pm Malaysia time on 10 November 2026. The US inflation report and the US stock session for 10 November had not happened at the time of writing, and prices will have moved since. Do your own research or consult a licensed adviser before investing.

Related reading

• Binance lost US$6.3 billion to hackers: is your crypto safe?
• Cryptocurrency vs SWIFT: why “decentralised” is the whole argument
• Why is AI surging, and why is crypto becoming a payment asset?
• “82% chance of a rate hike”: how to read FedWatch before you trade
• What Big Tech’s AI results say about the Nasdaq