bitcoin took a hit on Tuesday, falling to a 14-month low before recovering above $76,000 as tech sector turmoil sent markets spinning.
The largest cryptocurrency fell to $72,900 at the start of the US session, its weakest level since November 2024, when Donald Trump was elected. BTC then rallied 5% off the lows, rising back to $76,800, before the advance faded again. Ethereum ether it bounced 10% from session lows to surpass $2,300 before giving up some of the gains, according to data from CoinDesk.
The rally came as Congress reached a deal to end the partial government shutdown, offering some short-term relief to markets.
Helping to further ease pressure on risk assets was Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang’s appearance on CNBC, where he dismissed speculation about friction between the chipmaker and OpenAI. “There is no controversy at all. It is complete nonsense,” Huang said, reaffirming Nvidia’s commitment to investing in OpenAI’s next fundraising round. His comments came amid growing concerns about the stability of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, a key sentiment driver in the AI-driven tech rally.
Still, the sharp drop in cryptocurrencies left a trail of damage. According to CoinGlass, total digital asset derivatives liquidations increased to $740 million in the last 24 hours. Long positions, those betting on higher prices, bore the brunt of the removal with $287 million in BTC and $267 million in ETH being wiped out.
Technical non-compliance
Despite the rally, Bitcoin’s breaching of the April 2025 “tariff tantrum” lows marked a key technical collapse, raising the risk of a deeper correction.
Still, Benjamin Cowen, founder of analytics firm Into The Cryptoverse, said the overwhelming bearish sentiment could set the stage for a near-term countertrend rally. Historically, he noted, when bitcoin breaks past its previous lows, it often triggers relief rallies.
He also warned that if it doesn’t recover soon it could turn into “an incredible midterm year,” referring to previous bitcoin bear markets such as 2022 and 2018, which also coincided with the US midterm elections.
“I feel like the bearish narrative has been very strong for a while, so I would expect a countertrend rally soon to give the bulls some hope for a while,” Cowen said in an X post.
