Bitcoin has held near $75,000 despite a series of setbacks for the cryptocurrency market, including a $6.3 billion hack at Binance, a Democratic takeover of Congress and a sharp sell-off in technology shares.
The leading cryptocurrency was down by about 1% over 24 hours, a relatively modest move compared with losses elsewhere in the market. John LaForge, chief alternatives strategist at Ned Davis Research, said its ability to remain in the $75,000 to $80,000 range was “a mild positive”.
“It could have gotten hit a lot harder,” Mr LaForge said. “The fact that it’s still… holding the 75 to 80 [range], I consider it a mild positive.”
Bitcoin’s latest decline followed weekend revelations concerning Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang’s affair and an investigation by the company into whether he had been targeted by Chinese intelligence. The raw material does not provide further details about the allegations.
The developments came after Binance, the world’s largest centralised cryptocurrency exchange, was hit by a hack that drained roughly $6.3 billion. Crypto-backed candidates also suffered losses after Democrats took control of Congress.
Broader market conditions have added to the pressure. The technology-heavy Nasdaq fell by more than 5% last week as investors grew concerned about a wider sell-off in artificial intelligence stocks.
Markets are now awaiting an inflation report expected to show a further rise in consumer prices. Traders are also anticipating a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase in December, which could create another headwind for cryptocurrencies.
Altcoins suffer steeper losses
Bitcoin has experienced sharper falls before. In October 2025, President Donald Trump’s threat of steep new tariffs on Chinese imports led to more than $19 billion in cryptocurrency liquidations within a day.
In June, Bitcoin dropped below $60,000 to its lowest level of 2026 amid persistently high interest rates and heavy outflows from Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
Ish Asad, a crypto research analyst at asset manager Bitwise, said Bitcoin’s resilience could partly reflect how far it had already fallen.
“I think a lot of the bad news was priced in already. It’s not to say that it’s not going to chop sideways for a little bit longer, but I think the bottom is clearly in,” he said, referring to Bitcoin’s June low.
Mr Asad said an earlier movement of investment away from cryptocurrencies and into artificial intelligence had left fewer Bitcoin holders prepared to sell, helping to cushion the latest market turmoil.
Other cryptocurrencies have not proved as resilient. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency and the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, fell by nearly 5% over 24 hours. XRP, the token associated with Ripple, recorded similar daily losses and was down by almost 12% over the week.
Mr LaForge said the widening gap between Bitcoin and smaller cryptocurrencies was a familiar pattern. “Eventually when prices come down across the board, Bitcoin goes down less, and [altcoins] go down more,” he said.
He expects the divergence to continue during any recovery, with Bitcoin taking a larger share of the cryptocurrency market while many smaller tokens lag behind.
