Bitcoin falls below $72,000 after Nvidia CEO resigns and Strategy shares slide

Bitcoin Magazine Pro data showed bitcoin falling below $72,000 on Thursday morning after Nvidia announced CEO Jensen Huang's resignation and Strategy shares declined following MSCI's index-exit confirmation. Bitcoin reached the lowest price since mid-August. Selling began after Wednesday's close, taking bitcoin from about $74,700 to near $73,400 by 6 p.m. ET. Bitcoin remained broadly steady overnight before another decline started around 6 a.m. Bitcoin briefly reached about $72,200 shortly after 8 a.m., then fell to about $71,670 around 9:29 a.m.

The decline broke bitcoin's previous low near $72,700, reached after Tuesday's inflation release exceeded expectations. Bitcoin was roughly $31,200 below the price one year earlier. Bitcoin traded near $71,800 at the time of writing.

Nvidia said Thursday that Jensen Huang's resignation as president, chief executive and board member took effect immediately. Nvidia selected Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress to serve as interim CEO. Kress will retain the chief financial officer position during the interim appointment. Nvidia appointed Harvey C. Jones as the company's first board chair. The board said the search for a permanent successor would include candidates inside and outside Nvidia. Nvidia's fiscal third-quarter earnings release remains scheduled for November 17.

Huang's departure follows reports about extramarital relationships, including a relationship that has prompted national security concerns in Washington. North Dakota Republican Senator Kevin Cramer had urged Huang to resign on CNBC, describing Huang as "so vulnerable to extortion, blackmail."

Nvidia shares opened Thursday about 13% lower. Nasdaq 100 futures declined about 1.4%. S&P 500 futures lost about 0.7%. Dow futures showed almost no change. Intel, Marvell Technology and Micron fell between about 5% and 7.5%. CoreWeave lost about 16%, reversing most of Wednesday's 24.7% advance. Data center companies IREN, Applied Digital and Core Scientific also declined.

Bitcoin has largely tracked technology stocks this month. Bitcoin declined Monday when an earlier Nvidia investigation unsettled markets. Bitcoin participated less strongly in Wednesday's chip-stock recovery, and Thursday's decline more than erased bitcoin's small gain.

Strategy, the biggest corporate bitcoin holder, opened about 7% lower after MSCI confirmed Strategy's removal from MSCI indexes. MSCI's November review dropped Strategy from the MSCI USA Index, also removing Strategy from the MSCI World and ACWI indexes at the November 30 close. Japan's Metaplanet is also scheduled to leave the indexes. Index funds will sell MSTR shares rather than bitcoin, and the rules impose no requirement for Strategy to sell bitcoin holdings. However, a lower share price makes financing additional bitcoin purchases more difficult for Strategy while miners including MARA are selling coins.

Spot bitcoin ETFs registered $299.8 million in net withdrawals Wednesday, marking a fifth consecutive outflow day. Net withdrawals over those five days totaled about $1.44 billion. BlackRock's IBIT recorded $269.7 million of Wednesday's redemptions, marking a ninth consecutive session of outflows.

The Labor Department said initial unemployment claims increased to 200,000 last week, exceeding economists' forecast of 195,000. CME FedWatch showed traders treating a December Federal Reserve rate increase as certain, including about a 10% probability of a half-point increase. Higher interest rates make holding non-interest-bearing assets less attractive, restraining bitcoin's price throughout the week.

Cisco and Applied Materials are scheduled to release earnings after Thursday's close. Friday's Producer Price Index will provide another inflation reading after consumer price figures exceeded expectations this week.