Bitcoin Slides Toward $73K as Nvidia's CEO Crisis and MSCI's Strategy Snub Hit Markets

Two shocks landed on U.S. markets after Wednesday's close, and Bitcoin took both. The coin slid from $74,811 to $73,480 inside two hours, then traded at $73,588 on Binance Thursday morning, down 0.4% over 24 hours and 5.8% on the week. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 1.1% over the same two-hour window, with Nasdaq futures down 0.9%.

Nvidia supplied the first jolt. The New York Times reported Wednesday evening that CEO Jensen Huang had a second relationship with a senior employee who reports to him, and the Wall Street Journal reported the board is preparing to remove him. Nvidia had closed up 2.9% at $173.73 before collapsing to $157.99, a 9.1% drop, and it sits 8.6% lower ahead of Thursday's open. That's roughly 15% gone since last Friday, a fall that began Monday after the board opened a separate probe into reports Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort.

The second hit came from index provider MSCI, which confirmed it will delete Strategy from its global indexes after the market close on November 30. MSCI ruled the largest corporate Bitcoin holder looks more like an investment fund holding Bitcoin than an operating business. Japan's Metaplanet and Upexi are getting the same treatment. JPMorgan earlier estimated index funds would have to sell about $2.8 billion of Strategy stock; Strategy says those funds hold about 13 million shares, or 3.1% of its stock. Shares were down 1.8% before the open.

That matters well beyond one equity. Strategy is the steadiest corporate buyer of Bitcoin, and fewer index buyers for its shares could make raising money for new purchases harder and more expensive. The ETF drain predates both shocks: U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $299.8 million on Wednesday, their fifth consecutive day of outflows. It isn't a record yet — the longest stretch this year ran 13 trading days in May and June, just before Bitcoin fell under $60,000. October's hot inflation report on Tuesday also pushed Polymarket odds of a December rate hike to about 97%.

Bitcoin is still holding above Tuesday's low of $72,727, its weakest price since August 20. On the daily chart it trades below both exponential moving averages, with the 50-day at $78,696 and the 200-day at $76,422. Next up: Thursday's ETF flow data and how Nvidia opens. A sixth straight day of outflows plus a soft tech session would put $72,727 to the test.