Bitcoin price falls below $72,000: the reasons behind the drop

The bitcoin price fell below $72,000 on Thursday and stood at around $71,600 in the early evening, or roughly €64,800. That is the lowest level since August 20. Three events came together on a single trading day. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stepped down unexpectedly, index provider MSCI confirmed that Strategy will be removed from its major equity indices, and the US spot ETFs on Bitcoin lost money for the fifth day in a row. On top of that, markets expect the US Federal Reserve to raise rates in December.

According to CoinGecko, bitcoin traded between $71,238 and $74,695 over the past 24 hours and is down 3.4 percent. Over seven days the loss is 5.7 percent, over 30 days 14.1 percent. The price is now 43 percent below the record high of $126,080 set on October 6, 2025.

Bitcoin price on Thursday evening: $71,600 and the lowest level since August 20

Bitcoin Magazine traced the move. On Wednesday evening the price slipped from about $74,700 to $73,400. The second leg down began at around 6 a.m. New York time on Thursday. Shortly after 8 a.m. bitcoin stood at about $72,200, and at 9:29 a.m. at about $71,670. That also took out the previous low of around $72,700, set after the US inflation data on Tuesday (Bitcoin Magazine).

CoinGecko's daily data puts the decline into context. On August 20 bitcoin closed at $69,291, and a day later already at $73,021. No daily close since then has been below today's level. The summer low for the year came on August 17 at $62,844. Exactly one year ago, bitcoin still cost a little more than $101,600.

200-day moving average at $73,125: the break since Thursday morning

The 200-day moving average is the mean of the daily closing prices over the past 200 days. Many fund managers read it as the line between an intact and a damaged trend, because it smooths out short-term noise. By our calculation from CoinGecko's daily data, it stands at $73,125.

In our bitcoin price article from Thursday morning, bitcoin was still at $73,700, just under $575 above this line. We named $72,840 there as the lower mark. Neither held. Bitcoin is now about 2 percent below the 200-day moving average and a good $1,200 below the morning mark. The shorter averages sit well higher, with the 100-day average at $77,632 and the 50-day average at $81,141. All the key trend lines are therefore above the price.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang steps down: tech stocks pull bitcoin lower

Nvidia announced on Thursday that Jensen Huang is leaving with immediate effect as president, chief executive and member of the board. Chief financial officer Colette Kress will lead the company on an interim basis while remaining in charge of finance. Harvey C. Jones becomes chairman of the board. Huang co-founded Nvidia and ran it for more than three decades.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, the stock fell about 13 percent at the open. Other chip stocks followed Nvidia down. Intel, Marvell and Micron lost between 5 and 7.5 percent, and Nasdaq 100 futures were about 1.4 percent lower before the open.

This link matters for bitcoin because crypto and technology stocks are often sold together in periods of stress. Managers of large portfolios then cut risk across all the asset classes that swing most. Nvidia reports its fiscal third-quarter results on November 17. That is the next date on which sentiment in tech stocks could turn again, in either direction.

MSCI drops Strategy: index funds must sell the shares, the company keeps its bitcoin

Strategy, the listed company with the largest bitcoin holdings, fell about 7 percent at Thursday's open. MSCI will remove the stock from the MSCI USA, MSCI World and MSCI ACWI indices at the close of trading on November 30. Funds that track these indices have to sell their Strategy shares by then.

One point matters for the assessment. What is being sold is Strategy stock, not bitcoin. The index change does not force the company to part with any coins. The pressure on the bitcoin price is indirect. It works through sentiment and through the question of how easily companies with bitcoin on their balance sheets can raise fresh capital in future.

Bitcoin ETF outflows: fifth day in a row, $1.44 billion in five days

A spot ETF buys real bitcoin for every newly issued fund share and sells it again when investors redeem shares. Outflows therefore mean selling pressure on the spot market. On Wednesday, according to Bitcoin Magazine, investors pulled a net $299.8 million out of the US bitcoin ETFs. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) accounted for $269.7 million of that, around 90 percent.

According to the same source, it was the ninth straight trading day of outflows for IBIT. Across all funds, outflows over the past five trading days add up to around $1.44 billion. On Tuesday they had been only $95 million. Wednesday has for now disproved the hope voiced that morning that the outflows were running out.

Fed rate hike in December seen as almost certain: inflation and the labor market

US consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in October from the previous month, against expectations of 0.3 percent. The core rate, excluding energy and food, came in at 0.3 percent instead of the expected 0.2 percent. On Thursday the weekly initial jobless claims followed, at 200,000 against the expected 195,000.

According to the CME's FedWatch tool, cited by Bitcoin Magazine, futures traders see a rate hike at the Federal Reserve meeting on December 9 as almost certain. They put the probability of a half-point move at about 10 percent. Rising rates make safe assets more attractive and raise the cost of credit for leveraged positions. Both weigh on assets without a running yield, such as bitcoin. US producer prices follow on Friday as the next inflation reading.

Liquidations above $720 million: how the cascade in long positions works

A liquidation is the forced closure of a leveraged position once the posted collateral no longer covers the loss. According to data from CoinGlass, cited by several trade publications during the day, between about $720 million and $750 million was liquidated across the crypto market in 24 hours. Depending on when the data was queried, 85 to 88 percent of that came from long positions, meaning bets on rising prices. Bitcoin contracts accounted for around $305 million.

This is how a cascade forms. The exchange sells the collateral of a liquidated long position on the market. That pushes the price down, and the next liquidation price is reached. In arithmetic terms, a drop of just under 10 percent is enough to wipe out the entire collateral at tenfold leverage, and just under 5 percent at twentyfold leverage. From the 24-hour high of $74,695 to the low of $71,238, bitcoin fell 4.6 percent. For highly leveraged positions that was already too much.

Fear and Greed Index at 28: fear for several days

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index from alternative.me combines price volatility, trading volume, social media sentiment and bitcoin dominance into a single value between 0 and 100. On Thursday it stands at 28, in the “fear” zone. On Wednesday it was 29, and a few days earlier it briefly hit 25, which counts as “extreme fear”. The index describes sentiment and does not forecast prices. It does show, however, that sellers have been setting the tone for a good week.

Bitcoin levels: $69,300 below, $73,125 and $74,700 above

The levels come from this day's data and that of recent months. To the downside, the August 20 daily close of $69,291 is the next point at which bitcoin found buyers in late summer. Below that lies the range of about $62,800 to $64,000, where the price traded for several days in mid-August.

To the upside, the 200-day moving average at $73,125 is the first hurdle. Only a daily close above it would undo Thursday's break. Above that comes the 24-hour high of $74,695, where the decline began on Wednesday evening.

Buying bitcoin in the EU: MiCA-licensed providers, ETPs and leverage

The slide does not change the rules, but it makes some of them more relevant. Since July 1, 2026 at the latest, the transition period of the EU's MiCA regulation has expired. Anyone offering crypto services to customers in the EU needs authorization. Our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges with a MiCA license shows which providers have one. Retail investors in the EU cannot buy the US spot ETFs, whose outflows are currently weighing on the price, directly. In Europe they trade physically backed bitcoin ETPs on the stock exchange instead.

Leveraged products follow different rules. Leveraged positions in perpetual futures have no expiry date, but they are forcibly closed when collateral runs short, as Thursday's figures show.

Bitcoin below $72,000: only a move back above $73,125 would repair the break

Thursday's decline has several documented causes. They are the resignation of Jensen Huang and the sell-off in chip stocks, MSCI's removal of Strategy, the fifth straight day of ETF outflows, the expectation of a Fed rate hike on December 9 and a wave of liquidations of leveraged long positions. The dates that matter next are fixed: US producer prices on Friday, Nvidia's quarterly results on November 17, the index change on November 30 and the Fed meeting on December 9.

1. Check the provider: If you buy or sell, do it through an exchange with MiCA authorization. Our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges shows who has one.
2. Limit leverage: With daily swings of almost 5 percent, high leverage is a liquidation risk. How the platforms handle collateral and fees is covered in our perp DEX comparison.

(As of November 12, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)