Bitcoin marker on a steel support plane with restrained election colors

Bitcoin Holds Near $76,000 as Midterm Pressure Meets a Resilient Spot Bid

By Isaac • November 3, 2026 3:25 pm • Comments

Bitcoin is under pressure, but the market has not turned a trip below $77,000 into a full breakdown.

The largest cryptocurrency steadied after touching roughly $76,300, leaving traders to weigh three competing forces at once: fresh money leaving U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, uncertainty around the midterm elections and a spot market that has continued to absorb aggressive selling from derivatives traders.

CoinDesk reported that Bitcoin stabilized after touching roughly $76,300 as traders weighed political gridlock and continued redemptions from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. The move left the mid-$70,000 range in focus as a live support test rather than a settled floor.

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The market was trying to absorb several pressures at the same time. Election uncertainty was moving the broader risk backdrop, ETF flows were supplying measurable sell-side pressure, and derivatives traders were cutting exposure after Bitcoin lost the $80,000 area.

Yet the price did not accelerate into an immediate breakdown after the dip. That distinction matters because a market that stabilizes while forced or leveraged selling is active can behave very differently from one in which spot holders are rushing for the exits.

Glassnode’s market read offers an important distinction. Perpetual-futures selling drove much of the move lower, while spot buyers remained comparatively steady.

At the same time, long traders were still paying positive funding and options traders were purchasing downside protection.

That combination does not guarantee a rebound. It does suggest the drop was more complicated than a simple rush to exit Bitcoin.

Leveraged traders were reducing risk, but buyers in the underlying market had not disappeared.

The institutional flow picture is less forgiving. Farside Investors recorded $398.6 million in net U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF outflows for November 2, led by $405.3 million leaving BlackRock’s IBIT.

Those numbers put a measurable source of sell-side pressure behind the broader risk-off mood.

The gap between the total outflow and the larger withdrawal from IBIT also shows that flows across the remaining funds partly offset BlackRock’s loss. Even so, a negative aggregate result means the ETF channel was removing demand at the same time Bitcoin was testing a vulnerable price zone.

Election-day positioning is making the tape harder to read. Traders are assessing how the balance of power in Washington could affect fiscal policy, regulation and the broader appetite for risk.

Bitcoin is trading as a global asset, but U.S. political expectations still matter when they move stocks, the dollar and Treasury yields at the same time.

Previous cycles have produced short-term relief around the midterm vote, although 2022 broke that pattern. That history explains why the current support test is attracting so much attention without promising a repeat.

The useful question is whether spot demand can keep absorbing ETF and derivatives selling once the election catalyst passes.

For now, Bitcoin has avoided the clean break sellers were looking for. A durable recovery still needs stronger institutional flows and a reclaim of the lost $80,000 area.

Until then, the market is defending support—not proving that the correction is over.

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