Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang resigned as president, chief executive and board member, effective immediately, with CFO Colette Kress named interim CEO. Nvidia shares fell as much as 14%, to a low of $148.80, and recently traded around $165, roughly 5% below the previous close. The resignation follows media reports about Huang’s personal conduct. Investors now face uncertainty over succession and strategy at the chipmaker whose processors underpin much of the AI industry, which often acts as a proxy for crypto sentiment. Bitcoin miners-turned-AI data center firms including Cipher Digital, IREN and TeraWulf fell 5%–10%. Bitcoin barely reacted at first, then dropped toward $71,000 after Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack called for tighter monetary policy.
Bitcoin slipped to around $73,400 as a selloff in tech stocks spread, and U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost another $299.9 million on Wednesday, according to SoSoValue. It was a fifth straight day of outflows, about $1.44 billion since Nov. 5, with BlackRock’s IBIT accounting for $269.7 million and a ninth straight session of redemptions. CME FedWatch priced about a 90% chance of a Fed hike on Dec. 9. In options, one-week put skew rose to roughly 11%, a sign of demand for downside protection. The article was written before Nvidia announced Huang’s resignation, which followed reports that its board was preparing to remove him.
Index provider MSCI confirmed it will remove Strategy, the largest public holder of bitcoin, from its global equity indexes after the close on Nov. 30, under a new screen for “non-operating” companies. Funds tracking MSCI’s indexes hold about 13 million Strategy shares, roughly 3.1% of the total and less than a day’s trading volume, worth about $1.6 billion; JPMorgan earlier estimated $2.8 billion of outflows, based on an earlier proposal. The exclusion doesn’t force Strategy to sell bitcoin, but analysts say losing passive demand could squeeze the stock’s premium over its bitcoin holdings (mNAV, now about 1.08x), making stock sales to fund purchases less effective. Last week Strategy raised $283.8 million in stock but put only $81.9 million toward bitcoin. Some analysts say the move is largely priced in.
