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

Crypto-linked stocks such as MicroStrategy, Coinbase, Robinhood and bitcoin miners MARA, RIOT also suffered sizable declines.

Major cryptocurrency prices and related stocks fell on Thursday as traders seemed to be paring longs following large runs higher.

Bitcoin (BTC) failed a test once again of its record high above $73,700 overnight, slipping below $71,000, down 2% over the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH) fell 6% and was trading below $4,600.

Most of the altcoins in the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index fared worse, with Aptos (APT) and Render (RNDR) 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 large 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%.

According to a morning report by Geoffrey Kendrick, head of research of digital assets at Standard Chartered, 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) standing to benefit from a friendlier regulatory environment.