Republican congressional majorities, Nvidia’s leadership, and now Bitcoin? It’s all coming down!
Bitcoin’s price has fallen below $70,000 for the first time since August, and has been on a slow downward slide since late September, when it briefly touched more than $86,500.
As of Friday morning, BTC was trading as low as $68,070, before increasing to around $69,880.
Over the past five days, BTC values are down almost 7%, and the digital asset remains down more than 20% since the beginning of 2026.
As for what’s behind the most recent decline, it’s likely a combination of things, including concerns related to inflation and likely interest rate hikes, along with a decline in tech-sector stocks, which has been exacerbated by the bombshell scandal involving now-former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
The latest CPI data
The most recent CPI report, for one, showed that inflation was up 0.4% month-over-month, and Friday morning’s PPI report showed that producer prices were up 6.5% year-over-year, the highest in several years.
With inflation evidently rising, expectations are that the Fed will raise interest rates in December. Higher rates can affect investors’ trading activity, particularly for speculative assets, as they may be more inclined to invest in what might be “safer” assets.
A tech rout and Nvidia scandal
Tech stocks, too, have taken a hit in recent days, as the fallout from the Nvidia scandal has shaken out.
Nvidia was, for a time, the most valuable company in the world by market capitalization, but it has seen its shares lose more than 27% of their value over the past month.
The tech sell-off seems to have dragged down the crypto markets, too, as the two sectors are, on some levels, intermingled.
Investor and entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano, in a late-Thursday post on X, wrote that investors should “relax, so you can realize that AI and bitcoin are one big trade now.”
Outflows from Bitcoin funds
On top of that, outflows from Bitcoin funds may also be contributing to the slide. More than $1 billion in leveraged crypto positions were closed in recent days, which may have added to declining demand, affecting BTC prices.
Where does Bitcoin go from here?
As for what’s next, experts say several factors could determine whether BTC prices recover or continue to stagnate, including the Fed’s next moves, what happens with Bitcoin funds, and even upcoming IPOs.
“December’s quarter-point hike stays the base case,” Can-Luca Köymen, an investment strategist at Sygnum Bank, a Swiss digital asset bank, said in a statement provided to Fast Company. “With $1.6bn in crypto liquidations having cleared out much of the leverage, Bitcoin’s next move depends on ETF flows, Nvidia results and the Anthropic IPO next week.”