Bitcoin options traders spent election night buying downside protection rather than dumping coins. As early US midterm returns pointed to a Democratic sweep of Congress, Bitcoin briefly fell to about US$75,700 before steadying near US$76,600 in Asian trading, and the sharper moves showed up in AI data-centre and power stocks.
MoneyTurkey Derivatives Desk | 4 November 2026
Key points
- Bitcoin slipped as much as 1.6 per cent in Asia on Wednesday, touching about US$75,700 before recovering to around US$76,600.
- More than US$1 billion left US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs on Friday and Monday, while options buyers paid up for downside protection ahead of the vote.
- BTC Markets analyst Rachael Lucas called it hedging, not capitulation; the bigger damage was in data-centre names such as Cipher Digital (down 21 per cent).
What happened
Bitcoin had climbed close to US$78,000 late on Tuesday as Americans voted, then dropped more than US$2,000 as the first results came in, according to CoinDesk. It traded around US$76,600 at 10.30am in Singapore, The Business Times reported. By Wednesday afternoon in New York, Reuters described Democrats as having taken control of Congress, including wins in Texas and Georgia.
The coin is down roughly 6 per cent from last Thursday’s high, set before the US$6.3 billion Binance hack. For the industry, the worry is that Democratic control stalls the CLARITY Act, the market-structure bill that would set rules for US crypto trading, and brings tougher scrutiny of digital-asset firms.
What the futures and options market is pricing
“Sentiment is cautious, but this isn’t capitulation,” Lucas said. “Options show investors hedging the positions they already hold, and they expect any election volatility to be short-lived.” She added that with the bill already stalled in the Senate, a change in committee control would most likely mean renegotiation rather than a quick revival, “and markets had largely priced that in.”
Across other markets, S&P 500 futures fell 1.3 per cent and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 2.3 per cent overnight, the dollar weakened, and the 10-year Treasury yield slid six basis points to 4.90 per cent. Gridlock in Washington tends to help Treasuries because it limits new tax cuts and spending.
Why it matters
The crypto move was modest next to the repricing in AI infrastructure. Applied Digital fell 8.8 per cent, CoreWeave 9.5 per cent and Cipher Digital 21 per cent, while Vistra and Constellation Energy, among the power companies most exposed to Texas data-centre projects, lost 15.4 per cent and 9.2 per cent. “The AI build-out will become more expensive, not disappear,” said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial. “The most vulnerable AI companies are the borrowers.”
Money rotated rather than left. First Solar rose 8.4 per cent, Sunrun 6.9 per cent and Enphase Energy 8.8 per cent, and Amazon and Microsoft each gained about 6 per cent as investors bet a slower build-out makes existing data centres more valuable. For derivatives desks, the read is that election hedges sit in near-dated crypto puts, while the real repositioning is in equities tied to power and AI spending.
What to watch
- Whether Bitcoin put skew fades once the final House and Senate counts are confirmed
- Spot Bitcoin ETF flows for a turn after more than US$1 billion of outflows
- Any new timetable for the CLARITY Act under changed committee control
- Implied volatility in data-centre and power names after Wednesday’s double-digit falls
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For information only. Not investment advice.
Sources
- The Business Times / Bloomberg: Bitcoin slips as Democratic sweep bets threaten crypto agenda
- CoinDesk: Bitcoin briefly sinks to $75,700 as bets on a Democratic sweep rattle markets
- Reuters via Yahoo Finance: AI data-center stocks slide, renewables rally after Democratic US midterm sweep
