Ether Tumbles 5.8%, Leading Large Crypto Losses, With Bitcoin Sliding Below $71K

Cryptocurrency prices and related stocks slipped across the board on Thursday as traders appeared to be paring longs following big runs higher.

Once again failing a test of its record high above $73,700 overnight, bitcoin BTC$89,274.20 slipped below $71,000, down 2% over the past 24 hours.

Most of the altcoins in the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index fared worse, with Ethereum's ether {{ETH} tumbling 6% and, aptos APT$1.7627 and render RNDR$1.6027 each sliding 5%. The CoinDesk 20 itself was down 2.8%. Bitcoin's market dominance, which measures the largest crypto's share of the total crypto market capitalization, rose to a fresh three-year high of 60.2%, TradingView data shows.

The price declines happened alongside a big slide in U.S. stocks, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were 2.3% and 1.5% lower, respectively, early in the session, with tech giants Meta {{META}} and Microsoft {{MSFT}} dragging the indexes down after disappointing earnings reports.

Digital asset-linked stocks also suffered losses. Crypto exchange Coinbase's (COIN) shares declined 7% after missing earnings targets, while Robinhood (HOOD) tumbled 13%. Bitcoin miners including MARA Digital (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT) and Cleanspark (CLSK) tumbled 5%-10%.

MicroStrategy (MSTR), which on Wednesday announced a $42 billion capital raise plan to buy more bitcoin, outperformed, dipping just 2.5%.

Geoffrey Kendrick, head of research of digital assets at Standard Chartered, noted in a morning report that there's a risk of position unwinding ahead of the U.S. election due next week. A dip, however, would be a temporary setback, he said, with prices poised to rise following the election regardless of the results.

The report said a Republican sweep would provide the most bullish scenario for digital assets, with the bank setting a year-end bitcoin price target of $125,000 and altcoins including solana SOL$134.99 standing to benefit from a friendlier regulatory environment.