Bitcoin slides as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns

Bitcoin fell as much as 2.2% on Thursday and traded near $73,000 in early New York trading. Concern over leadership turmoil at Nvidia ↗ 2.87% hit the artificial intelligence trade and pulled US stock futures down, Bloomberg reported. Within hours the turmoil ended in a resignation. Nvidia's board announced that Jensen Huang had resigned as president, chief executive and director, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor.bloomberg.com+1

Bitcoin's drop came on top of other pressures. Spot ETFs kept losing money, and hotter US inflation data has raised the odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike.

Nvidia shock spreads

Nvidia shares sank in after-hours trading on Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal News Corp ↗ 0.40% reported that the board was preparing to remove Huang, and The New York Times ↗ 0.17% reported a second relationship with a senior employee, according to Coinspeaker via Yahoo Finance. Huang had already admitted to an affair with a woman US intelligence officials believe may be a Chinese intelligence asset. He said he did not know she was a suspected spy, Benzinga noted. Wired reported that he stepped down four days after Nvidia opened its internal investigation. The board also named Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever chair.benzinga.com+3

Bitcoin has moved closely with AI and chip stocks this year, since both draw on the same pool of risk-tolerant money, Benzinga said. Nasdaq 100 futures fell along with the token. Render, a token tied to a decentralized GPU network, also fell, Quartz reported.qz.com+1

ETF outflows and Fed bets

US spot bitcoin ETFs lost $299.9 million on Wednesday, their fifth straight day of outflows. That brings withdrawals to about $1.44 billion since Nov. 5, CoinDesk reported, citing SoSoValue. BlackRock's ↗ 0.34% iShares Bitcoin Trust ↗ 1.34% accounted for $269.7 million of Wednesday's total, its ninth straight session of redemptions. The longest outflow streak this year ran 13 trading days and totaled $4.4 billion, Cryptonews Australia noted.coindesk.com+1

A hotter-than-expected inflation reading on Tuesday sent bitcoin to a three-month low. CME ↗ 2.19% FedWatch pricing now puts the odds of a rate increase at the Fed's Dec. 8–9 meeting near 90%, Quartz reported.qz.com

Strategy index removal

There is pressure from inside crypto too. MSCI ↗ 0.72% confirmed it will remove Strategy ↘ 1.64%, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, from its global indexes after the close on Nov. 30, Coinspeaker reported. Metaplanet and Upexi will also be removed.finance.yahoo.com

Bitunix analyst Dean Chen said the selling is concentrated in derivatives. "Bitcoin is showing signs of a changing market structure, with selling pressure concentrated in derivatives while spot market activity remains comparatively resilient," he wrote, as quoted by Quartz.qz.com