Bitcoin dropped below $72,000 on Thursday morning, touching its weakest level since mid-August, after Nvidia announced the resignation of CEO Jensen Huang and Strategy shares slid on MSCI's confirmation of an index exit, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data.

The selling began after Wednesday's close. Bitcoin slipped from about $74,700 to near $73,400 by 6 p.m. ET and drifted sideways overnight. A second leg lower started around 6 a.m., briefly pushing the price down to about $72,200 shortly after 8 a.m. The decline then accelerated, and bitcoin traded as low as about $71,670 around 9:29 a.m.

The move took bitcoin below the low near $72,700 it set after Tuesday's hotter-than-expected inflation report, and the asset now trades roughly $31,200 below its level a year ago.

Nvidia CEO Steps Down, and Bitcoin Follows

Nvidia (NVDA) said Thursday that Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and board member, effective immediately. Huang co-founded the company in 1993 and built it into the world's most valuable chipmaker and a leading supplier of processors for artificial intelligence. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress, who has served as finance chief since 2013, was named interim CEO, and Harvey C. Jones was appointed the company's first board chair. Kress will keep her finance chief role while serving in the interim position. The board is searching for a permanent successor and said it will weigh internal and external candidates. Nvidia remains scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter results on Nov. 17.

The resignation follows reports of extramarital relationships, including one that has raised national security concerns in Washington. Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, had told CNBC that Huang should step down, saying he was “so vulnerable to extortion, blackmail.”

Nvidia shares fell about 13% at Thursday's open. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped roughly 1.4% and S&P 500 futures lost about 0.7%, while Dow futures were nearly flat. Intel, Marvell Technology and Micron declined between about 5% and 7.5%, and CoreWeave gave up about 16%, surrendering most of Wednesday's 24.7% surge. Data center firms IREN, Applied Digital and Core Scientific also traded lower.

Bitcoin has moved with the technology sector for most of this month. It fell on Monday when an earlier Nvidia probe rattled markets, then lagged Wednesday's rebound in chip stocks. Thursday's slide wiped out that small gain and more.

Strategy Slides After MSCI Confirms Index Exit

Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, opened about 7% lower after MSCI confirmed it will drop the stock from its indexes. The index provider's November review removed Strategy from the MSCI USA Index, a step that also takes it out of the MSCI World and ACWI indexes, two of the most widely tracked global equity benchmarks, effective at the Nov. 30 close. Japan's Metaplanet, a Tokyo-listed bitcoin treasury firm, is also slated for removal.

Index funds will sell MSTR shares, not bitcoin, and nothing in the rules requires Strategy to sell its coins. Still, a weaker stock makes it harder for the company to raise money for new purchases at a time when miners such as MARA are selling coins.

ETF Outflows and Fed Bets Keep Pressure On

Fund demand stayed weak. Spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $299.8 million of net outflows on Wednesday, a fifth consecutive day of withdrawals that lifted the five-day total to about $1.44 billion. BlackRock's IBIT, the largest spot bitcoin ETF by assets, accounted for $269.7 million of Wednesday's redemptions, its ninth straight session of outflows.

Thursday morning's labor data did little to soften the rate outlook. Initial jobless claims climbed to 200,000 last week, above the 195,000 economists had expected, according to the Labor Department. CME FedWatch data show traders still treat a December Fed rate hike as a certainty, with roughly a 10% chance of a half-point move. Higher rates make an asset that pays no interest harder to hold, a dynamic that has capped bitcoin all week.

More tests come quickly. Cisco and Applied Materials report results after Thursday's close, and Friday's Producer Price Index will offer another inflation reading after this week's consumer price data came in hotter than expected.

At the time of writing, bitcoin trades near $71,800.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Micah Zimmerman.