Bitcoin dropped to its lowest level in nearly 12 weeks, weighed down by uncertainty across global markets following the abrupt resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and upcoming changes to MSCI index compositions.

The leading cryptocurrency lost more than 3.5% of its value over the past 24 hours, extending its weekly decline beyond 8%. Ethereum, Solana, and XRP each fell more than 3.5% in the same 24-hour window.

The selloff triggered heavy deleveraging across the market. Data from CoinGlass shows total liquidations exceeded $750 million, of which more than $634 million stemmed from long positions. Liquidations are the automatic closure of leveraged positions by exchanges when margin requirements can no longer be met, and the long-side share of the total shows that traders positioned for gains bore the bulk of the forced unwinding.

The decline coincided with corporate upheaval at chipmaker Nvidia. Huang, who served as both chief executive and a board member, resigned suddenly, and the company appointed finance director Colette Kress as interim CEO. Nvidia shares opened 12% lower on Thursday. Nvidia is a leading supplier of the semiconductors powering the artificial-intelligence computing buildout, a profile that has made the company a closely watched gauge of technology-sector risk appetite.

Separately, index provider MSCI announced that Strategy and Metaplanet — companies known for holding large Bitcoin reserves — will be removed from their respective indices at the close of trading on November 30. The decision follows new eligibility rules that assess the operational structure of constituent companies. MSCI indices act as benchmarks for a broad range of investment funds, meaning eligibility changes alter which companies appear in portfolios that mirror them.

Several other developments are shaping the broader crypto landscape:

• Ethereum research group Ethlabs has proposed accelerating a planned network upgrade addressing quantum-computing threats, moving it forward from 2029 to 2027. Quantum resistance has been a long-running theme in blockchain research, since sufficiently powerful quantum computers could in theory break the cryptographic signatures securing existing chains.
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sided with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in a legal dispute over perpetual futures contracts based on stocks. Perpetual futures are derivative contracts with no expiry date that are especially widely used in crypto trading, and in the United States derivatives generally fall under the CFTC's oversight while securities fall under the SEC's.
• Tron, Tether, and Chainalysis have formed a new working group to combat illegal USDT transactions. USDT is the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin in circulation, and Chainalysis provides blockchain-analytics tools used to trace fund flows.

Market attention now turns to upcoming U.S. producer price index (PPI) data, with investors continuing to track how macroeconomic developments affect crypto assets. PPI tracks the average change in prices that domestic producers receive for their output and is often read as an early gauge of inflation pressure, which feeds into expectations around Federal Reserve policy. Beyond the data release, the November 30 index removals and Nvidia's interim leadership arrangement stand out among the near-term developments market participants are watching.

This is not investment advice.