Bitcoin (BTC) sought to erase roughly 3% in overnight losses on Wednesday as crypto markets digested the Democratic sweep of the United States midterm elections, with the largest cryptocurrency dipping to a seven-week low before rebounding toward $78,000.

Key points:

• Bitcoin fell to $75,618 as Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in the US midterm elections.
• BTC/USD rebounded to overhead resistance near $78,000, while S&P 500 futures were down 0.3% on Wednesday.
• Analysts warned that BTC must defend its 50-week moving average, now at $75,733, to avoid a deeper correction.

US midterm vote sparks sub-$76,000 BTC price dip

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD falling into Tuesday’s daily close as election results came in, with Democrats going on to win control of both chambers of Congress, according to Cointelegraph’s live midterm coverage. The pair dropped to a low of $75,618 on Bitstamp — a level last seen on Sept. 16 — before rebounding as high as $78,039 over the following three hours.

Data from CoinGlass showed the price dip liquidating late BTC long positions below $76,000, while a wall of ask orders — clusters of sell orders stacked at a specific price — kept upside contained below $78,000. Total crypto long liquidations over the past 24 hours stood at $288 million. Liquidations occur when exchanges automatically close leveraged positions to cover margin shortfalls, so long liquidations on a dip represent traders betting on higher prices being forced to exit.

In comments sent to Cointelegraph, Kelly Ye, head of research at institutional digital asset trading platform Talos, said that markets had largely priced in the election outcome.

“Bitcoin moved about 1.7% after the polls closed, close to the roughly 1.8% options had priced, and there was no major leverage flush. The election was the main event, but markets had largely prepared for it,” she said.

US stock futures showed similar moves, initially falling before recouping some losses. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were both down by about 0.3% at the time of writing.

Late Tuesday, Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at financial services company Ameriprise Financial, told CNBC that concerns over data-center and broader artificial intelligence capital expenditure were producing an adverse market reaction to the Democratic gains.

“If you get some governorships that are Democratic, what does that mean for the data center buildout, which has already seen a lot of skepticism over the last couple weeks in terms of the hyperscaler capex spending?” he asked.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, US President Donald Trump, who previously said he could become “Mr. Veto” to block Democratic policy initiatives, struck a conciliatory tone.

“I think we’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll get along very well with them,” he said.

Bitcoin’s 50-week trend line key to avoiding a “deeper correction”

Bitcoin’s drop to $75,618 coincided with its 50-week simple moving average (SMA), a trend line that has held as support since mid-September. The 50-week SMA averages roughly one year of weekly closing prices into a single reference level, making it a widely watched gauge of long-term trend health.

In an analysis posted on X, Keith Alan, co-founder of crypto trading suite Material Indicators, identified the 50-week SMA as a line in the sand for Bitcoin bulls. Failure to defend it, he argued, would open the door to a “deeper correction ahead.”

Crypto trader and analyst Rekt Capital, who had forecast that BTC/USD would dip below $76,000 after a failed breakout attempt above $78,000, continued to flag overhead resistance on the three-day chart.

“If this continues then these newfound 3-Day Lower Highs may guide price back towards the ~$75.5k level below over time,” he said on Wednesday.