Bitcoin drops 5% as chip stocks lose $2 trillion after the midterms

Bitcoin drops 5% to $76,219 as Wall Street gives back its post-election gains. Ether fell 6.1% to $2,274, and the crypto market lost 5.6% over 24 hours to $2.59 trillion, by CoinGecko data at 15:47 UTC. By mid-session in New York the S&P 500 was down 2.1% and the Nasdaq Composite 3.8%, Yahoo Finance’s live coverage shows. Chipmakers led the fall.

Chip stocks lose about $2 trillion

Yahoo Finance estimated that chip stocks erased about $2 trillion in market value, and the PHLX Semiconductor index fell more than 9%. Some of the largest losses:

• AMD: about 13%;
• Micron: about 12%;
• Nvidia: about 7%.

The selloff reverses Wednesday, when the Dow gained 2.9% after Democrats won both chambers of Congress and US stocks added about $900 billion in value at the open, as we reported.

Investors fear a slower AI build-out

Traders worry that a Democratic Congress will slow the construction of AI data centers. On Wednesday six data center builders closed down between 17% and 23%, even as Microsoft and Amazon rose. Hut 8 and Cipher Digital, former bitcoin miners that now rent power and space to AI companies, fell 23.2% and 20.0%. In July Hut 8 signed a $9.8 billion AI lease.

Dan Ives of Yorkville said that “Democrats taking control, especially over the Senate, will create some major hurdles for AI and tech legislation” over the next two years, according to Yahoo Finance. He expects delays to many of the 800 to 1,000 data centers planned in the US.

Investors also watch Texas. Gina Hinojosa, the Democrat elected governor on 3 November, promised a moratorium on new data centers, and Wells Fargo estimates that the state holds about 27% of US data center capacity, CNBC reported. She takes office in January.

Crypto has its own worries

Bitcoin climbed back above $80,000 on Wednesday and lost the whole rebound today. Yahoo Finance tied the fall to the stock selloff, last week’s $6.3 billion Binance hack and uncertainty over the CLARITY Act, the market structure bill. In the outgoing Senate no Democrat voted to advance CLARITY, as we counted after the election.

What it means for you

Today bitcoin moved with tech stocks, so a selloff in chipmakers reached crypto holdings within hours. If you own shares of miners that switched to AI hosting, such as Hut 8, you carry two risks at once: a slower data center build-out and the price of bitcoin. The new Congress sits from January, so the policy changes investors fear have not started yet.

Market data as of 5 November 2026: crypto prices from CoinGecko at 15:47 UTC, US stock moves during the trading session. This is not investment advice.