Bitcoin Holds Near $75,000 as Binance Hack and Tech Rout Rock Crypto

Bitcoin is sitting near $75,000 after a 1% dip over the past 24 hours — a wobble, not a wipeout, given what hit the market. The weekend brought revelations about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's affair and the company's ensuing investigation into whether he was targeted by Chinese intelligence. That landed on top of two other blows: a Democratic takeover of Congress that cost crypto-backed candidates, and a hack that drained roughly $6.3 billion from Binance, the largest centralized crypto exchange.

"It could have gotten hit a lot harder," said John LaForge, chief alternatives strategist at Ned Davis Research. "The fact that it's still… holding the 75 to 80 [range], I consider it a mild positive."

Macro isn't helping. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell more than 5% last week as fears of a broad AI stock selloff spread, and investors are waiting on Tuesday's inflation report, which economists expect to show consumer prices climbing again. Traders are also pricing in a Federal Reserve rate hike in December.

Bitcoin has absorbed far worse. In October 2025, President Donald Trump's threat of steep new tariffs on Chinese imports triggered more than $19 billion in crypto liquidations in a single day. In June, Bitcoin dropped below $60,000 to its lowest level of 2026, dragged by stubbornly high interest rates and heavy outflows from Bitcoin ETFs.

Ish Asad, a crypto research analyst at asset manager Bitwise, said much of the damage was already done. "I think a lot of the bad news was priced in already," he said of the June low. "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." Asad credited an earlier exodus from crypto into AI trades with leaving fewer holders around to sell.

Altcoins got no such cushion. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency and Ethereum's native token, has dropped nearly 5% in a day, while XRP, tied to Ripple, posted similar daily losses and is down nearly 12% over the past week. LaForge called the split a familiar script — "Eventually when prices come down across the board, Bitcoin goes down less, and [altcoins] go down more" — and expects Bitcoin to grab a bigger share of the market while smaller tokens lag any recovery.