Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
Bitcoin The Almighty Buck

Did Bitcoin Play a Role in Thursday's Stock Sell-Off? (msn.com) 38

A week ago Bitcoin was at $93,714. Saturday it dropped to $85,300.

Late Thursday, market researcher Ed Yardeni blamed some of Thursday's stock market sell-off on "the ongoing plunge in bitcoin's price," reports Fortune: "There has been a strong correlation between it and the price of TQQQ, an ETF that seeks to achieve daily investment results that correspond to three times (3x) the daily performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index," [Yardeni wrote in a note]. Yardeni blamed bitcoin's slide on the GENIUS Act, which was enacted on July 18, saying that the regulatory framework it established for stablecoins eliminated bitcoin's transactional role in the monetary system. "It's possible that the rout in bitcoin is forcing some investors to sell stocks that they own," he added... Traders who used leverage to make crypto bets would need to liquidate positions in the event of margin calls.

Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, also said bitcoin could swing the entire stock market, pointing out that it's become a proxy for speculation. "As a long-time systematic trader, it tells me that algorithms are acting upon the relationship between stocks and bitcoin," he wrote in a note on Thursday.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Did Bitcoin Play a Role in Thursday's Stock Sell-Off?

Comments Filter:
  • Got it backwards (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Saturday November 22, 2025 @11:21PM (#65812937)

    Crypto is (for whatever bizarre reason) following the stock market, not vice versa.

    • I agree, and instead of selling stocks, most smart people would sell BTC first. I guess that would make BTC the proverbial "canary in the coalmine". ------------ Late Thursday, market researcher Ed Yardeni blamed some of Thursday's stock market sell-off on "the ongoing plunge in bitcoin's price," reports Fortune:
      • You miss the point. There are two groups of people who would sell stocks because bitrot dropped: people who found a way to buy it on margin, or with some other debt device, and people who want to buy it because they think it will go back up later.

        Both of these groups would be willing to sell stocks, even at a small loss, to generate liquid assets.

        Last week I sold some stocks at a loss because a speculative tech stock I'm fond of dropped even more.

        There is nothing in this situation where a person would be ch

    • Correct. Investors with appetite for highly speculative assets are the main BTC buyers and sellers. Keep in mind how much BTC is now held by ETF's, closed-end funds, banks hedging the levered access they facilitate etc. BTC is, in aggregate, just a few percent of a highly speculative portfolio. So the correlation we are seeing, for instance, between the NASDAQ and BTC, is likely driven by a causation that runs in the other direction: If your biggest plays such as NASDAQ stocks are not doing well, you manag
    • Not really. SPY is 4% off it's All Time High, Bitcoin is 34% off. If anything people are realizing the days of Bitcoin outperforming SPY are likely long gone.
      • If you follow the markets day-by-day, crypto often follows the market, at least when it dips. The swings are different and the magnitudes are different which is why you see the different deltas from ATH. But the stock market is definitely not using crypto as a leading indicator as stated in the summary.

        • They're not saying the stock market is using it as a leading indicator and reacting to that.

          They're saying that investors who used leverage to buy crypto are forced to generate liquid assets to put in their accounts so they don't get a margin call that forces them to sell low. They're selling stocks to generate those liquid assets so they can ride through the dip.

          Don't pretend you "follow the markets day-by-day" when you don't even understand what is being discussed here.

  • Yes and no. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Sunday November 23, 2025 @01:01AM (#65813003)

    Did some automated trading occur as a result of algorithmic correlation? Yes. Is it responsible for the sell-off? No, the people who programmed them are responsible for that. Is automated trading a waste of energy and a threat to everyone? Yes.

    The only way to unfuck the stock market is to put a cooldown penalty on buying and selling. You can buy or sell as fast as you want but if you buy and sell the same stock too soon then you should pay a penalty. Also, make all the fucking dark pools illegal already.

    • I think there is already a penalty like that. It's called the wash sale rule and it applies to buying and selling the same thing within 30 days. I guess the penalty just isn't big enough?

      • by davidwr ( 791652 )

        The penalty isn't really a penalty unless you are trying to game the tax system. Basically, if you buy a share today, sell it tomorrow, then buy it back within 30 days of the sale, it's a non-taxable event. If you wait 31 days, you can claim the loss or gain from the sale, and when you eventually re-sell the stock the sale 32 days from today is the "basis value" for your next gain or loss.

        I think Gravis Zero is looking for some actual penalty.

        Back in the old days before cheap trading and penny-increment p

    • These are a bunch of totally unsubstantiated claims. Algorithmic trading improves market efficiency during normal times would be the majority opinion in finance. If algorithmic trading is criticized, the angle is usually that it may work to amplify market dislocations on days with high stress/volatility. But your claim of "waste of time and energy" is unheard of among experts and professionals.
      • Algorithmic trading improves market efficiency during normal times would be the majority opinion in finance.

        Only by people that ignore that the premise of the stock market was to allow people to invest in companies that they believe have the potential to positively impact society. When you discard the premise of the stock market, it becomes a game of who can outsmart the majority of traders and end up taking their money. When looked at from this perspective, it's obvious that a lot of time and energy is being expended for the sole purpose of "winning" while other people lose money they invested. This type of syst

  • Bitcoin based on nothing....brings the house down !
  • Don't blame Bitcoin. Bitcoin is reacting to the bad economy, not the other way around. Strongest sign of this is when its price moves most, which is during weekdays. On weekends, when the stock markets are closed, it's trying to recover.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    The grand master plan of crypto

    The plan for all cryptocurrencies isn't what they want to make you think it is. It's more sinister than the egalitarian image the crypto boys portray for it.

    After the 2008 financial meltdown, cryptocurrencies were born out of it, declared to be the means by which people could be freed from banks/governments, and promised to avoid any such future meltdowns from happening ever again.

    But the crypto boys watched closely the result of that meltdown, and formulated their plan: c

Cobol programmers are down in the dumps.

Working...