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1. Bitcoin crash deepens over the weekend
Bitcoin (BTC) fell to about $65,000 on Saturday, November 14, extending a bitcoin crash that has cut the price by roughly 14% since November 7, when it traded near $75,750. The weekend drop broke through Friday's low of about $67,555 as a stronger dollar, higher Treasury yields and expectations of a December Federal Reserve rate hike pressured risk assets.
The world's largest cryptocurrency was changing hands near $65,600 later on Saturday, still close to the session low. With US stock and bond markets closed for the weekend, trading in bitcoin was left without the usual cues from traditional finance, and thinner order books made the price more sensitive to selling.
The decline marks a sharp reversal from the start of the month. Over the past seven days, bitcoin has posted a run of lower highs and lower lows, with each attempt at a rebound fading before it could reclaim the levels lost earlier in the week.
2. How the week unfolded
The slide gathered pace on Thursday, November 12, after Jensen Huang resigned as chief executive of Nvidia. His departure set off a selloff in artificial intelligence stocks, and bitcoin, which has often traded alongside high-growth technology shares, fell with them. By Thursday evening it had dropped to about $71,000.
The selling continued into Friday. Bitcoin sank to about $67,555 in early trading, its lowest point of the week to that stage, before staging a partial recovery. A brief climb back above $70,000 followed the release of US producer price data on Friday morning, but the gains did not last, and the price spent most of the afternoon below that threshold.
Another wave of selling arrived on Friday evening. After steadying overnight, bitcoin fell again on Saturday morning and pushed through Friday's low, reaching about $65,000. That break of a level that had held only a day earlier was significant for traders who watch recent lows as reference points for where buyers may step in.
3. Why is bitcoin dropping?
Bitcoin is dropping mainly because tighter financial conditions in the United States are reducing appetite for risk. Rising Treasury yields, a dollar near its strongest level in 19 months and a fully priced Federal Reserve rate hike in December have all weighed on the price, while a selloff in AI and chip stocks after Jensen Huang's exit from Nvidia added pressure.
These forces tend to reinforce each other. Higher interest rates increase the opportunity cost of holding assets that pay no income, such as bitcoin, because investors can earn more from cash and government bonds. A strong dollar also tends to coincide with weaker demand for alternative stores of value and for speculative assets in general.
Bitcoin's sensitivity to these conditions has grown as institutional investors have become a larger part of its market. Funds that hold bitcoin alongside stocks and bonds often adjust their exposure in response to the same macroeconomic signals, which can tie crypto prices more closely to moves in traditional markets.
4. Putting the weekly decline in perspective
Measured from the roughly $75,750 level of November 7 to Saturday's low near $65,000, bitcoin has given up close to $10,750 per coin in a single week. A move of that size in seven days is large even by the standards of a famously volatile asset, and it has come without a single crypto-specific shock to explain it.
Instead, the decline has been driven by a sequence of outside events: a leadership crisis at the world's most prominent AI chipmaker, an inflation report showing the fastest annual rise in wholesale prices in nearly four years, a jump in long-term borrowing costs and a central bank that markets now expect to raise rates again. Each of those developments arrived within a few days of the others, leaving little time for the market to stabilize between them.
The pattern of the week also matters to traders. Rallies have been short-lived, with the brief push above $70,000 on Friday reversing within the same session, while each new wave of selling has carried the price to a lower level than the last. Until that sequence of lower lows is broken, many market participants are likely to treat rebounds with caution.
For long-term holders, the drop is a reminder that bitcoin remains highly sensitive to changes in global liquidity. Periods in which interest rates rise and the dollar strengthens have often been difficult for the asset, and the current environment combines both.
5. Wholesale inflation keeps the Fed on track to hike
The Labor Department reported on Friday, November 13, that its producer price index rose 0.3% in October. That was slightly below the 0.4% economists had forecast, but the annual picture was far less comforting. Over the 12 months through October, producer prices climbed 6.5%, the largest annual increase since November 2022.
Producer prices measure what businesses receive for their goods and services, and they are watched as an early indicator of the price pressures that may later reach consumers. A softer monthly reading gave markets a moment of relief, which helped lift bitcoin briefly above $70,000, but the elevated annual rate reinforced the view that inflation remains well above the Federal Reserve's comfort zone.
Futures markets tracked by CME's FedWatch tool show traders fully pricing a quarter-point rate increase when the Federal Open Market Committee meets on December 8 and 9. For an asset like bitcoin, which benefited for years from low rates and abundant liquidity, the prospect of further tightening has been a persistent headwind.
6. Treasury yields and the dollar climb
Bond investors were not reassured by the cooler monthly inflation figure. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note rose as high as 5.17% on Friday, a four-week high, before ending the session at 5.15%. Yields move in the opposite direction to bond prices, so the rise signaled that investors were selling government debt in anticipation of higher rates.
The US dollar index held near its strongest level in 19 months, the highest since April 2025. A firm dollar makes dollar-denominated assets more expensive for buyers using other currencies and often coincides with tighter global liquidity, conditions that have historically weighed on bitcoin.
Federal Reserve officials have added to the hawkish tone. Boston Fed President Susan Collins and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly both indicated that additional tightening may be appropriate, comments that strengthened market conviction about a December move.
7. Technology stocks offer no support
Equity markets provided little cushion. The Nasdaq 100 closed Friday down 1.22%, and shares of chipmaker AMD fell more than 8% as the selloff in semiconductor and AI-linked stocks continued following Huang's resignation.
Nvidia has been led on an interim basis by Colette Kress, previously its chief financial officer, since Huang stepped down. The leadership change at the company most closely associated with the AI investment boom has unsettled investors across the technology sector, and that unease has spilled over into crypto markets.
The connection between AI stocks and bitcoin is partly a matter of shared investors. Many portfolios that hold large positions in high-growth technology names also carry exposure to digital assets, so a sharp drawdown in one area can prompt selling in the other as investors reduce overall risk.
8. Spot bitcoin ETFs keep bleeding
Demand from US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds has not been strong enough to absorb the selling. Thursday marked a sixth consecutive trading day of net outflows across the funds, extending a stretch in which investors have pulled money rather than added to positions.
Spot ETFs have become one of the most closely watched sources of bitcoin demand since their launch, because they give a clear daily read on how institutional and retail investors in traditional brokerage accounts are positioning. A sustained run of outflows suggests that this group is reducing exposure in response to the deteriorating macroeconomic backdrop.
Weekend trading adds another layer of vulnerability. ETFs do not trade on Saturdays and Sundays, and liquidity across crypto exchanges is usually thinner, so relatively modest selling can move the price further than it would during the week.
9. Miners get relief from a difficulty cut
Bitcoin miners received some relief on Saturday. The network's mining difficulty fell 9.13% at block 975,744, dropping from about 148.36 trillion to 134.82 trillion.
Difficulty measures how hard it is to find a valid block, and the protocol adjusts it every 2,016 blocks to keep the average time between blocks close to 10 minutes. When miners switch off machines and total computing power declines, blocks arrive more slowly, and the next adjustment lowers difficulty to compensate.
A lower difficulty means each remaining miner can expect to earn a larger share of block rewards for the same amount of computing power. That can ease the financial strain on mining companies at a time when the falling bitcoin price is cutting the dollar value of the coins they produce.
10. What comes next for the bitcoin price
The immediate question for traders is whether bitcoin can climb back above Friday's low near $67,555 or whether the weekend break below that level marks the start of a new leg lower. Former support levels often turn into resistance once they are lost, which could make a recovery through that area harder.
When traditional markets reopen on Monday, attention will return to Treasury yields and the dollar. Any further rise in yields would add to the pressure on bitcoin, given that a December rate hike is already fully priced and the dollar index sits near a 19-month high.
Developments around Nvidia under its interim leadership will also be in focus, since the company's turmoil has been a key driver of the wider technology selloff. Beyond that, the Federal Reserve's December 8 and 9 meeting remains the main scheduled event that could reset expectations for interest rates and, with them, for bitcoin.