Bitcoin and crypto market fall further after Jensen Huang's resignation

• The $72,000 level gave way for Bitcoin following Jensen Huang's resignation as Nvidia President and CEO.
• Following Huang's immediate exit from its leadership, Nvidia named CFO Colette Kress interim CEO.
• Losses of 7% to 12% for NEAR, Bittensor, Render and Pearl accompanied a decline of over 5% in AI tokens.

Bitcoin (BTC) broke below $72,000 on Thursday, with losses deepening across the broader crypto market following Jensen Huang's resignation as President and CEO of Nvidia (NVDA). After the announcement, the leading cryptocurrency lost that level, while Ethereum (ETH) briefly touched $1,990 before rebounding to $2,000. Losses for BNB, XRP and Solana (SOL) also stand at 4%, 2.8% and 3%, respectively.

According to Coinglass data, liquidations triggered by the move totalled $719.9 million over the past 24 hours, with long positions accounting for $642.2 million.

Nvidia reshapes leadership after Huang steps down

Selling pressure intensified after Nvidia disclosed Jensen Huang's resignation from his roles as President, CEO and a member of the company's board.

Pending the appointment of a permanent successor, the board named Nvidia's current executive vice president and CFO, Colette Kress, as interim CEO. She will continue in her finance role until a new chief executive is appointed.

Colette Kress said: “Nvidias strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years,”

Both internal and external candidates will be considered by the board during the search. Harvey C. Jones was also named Nvidia's first-ever chairman of the board.

Describing Kress's experience, Jones said: “Colette has helped lead Nvidia through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position,”

Mounting controversy over Huang's reported relationships with three women preceded his departure. Among them is Huang Le, a Chinese businesswoman whom US authorities suspect of links to Chinese intelligence. Unverified reports also connected him with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's Vice President of Healthcare, and another Nvidia employee.

After Jensen previously acknowledged the affair with Powell, Nvidia's board initiated an independent investigation into the allegations. Its official announcement did not explicitly cite the controversy as the reason for his exit.

At the time of writing, Nvidia shares are 5.8% lower at $163.60.

AI tokens deepen declines alongside Nvidia shares

A 5.6% decline over the past 24 hours left the AI token category underperforming Bitcoin and Ethereum. Nvidia's latest announcement increased pressure on the category as several leading tokens added to their losses.

Among major AI-related cryptocurrencies, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) led losses with a 10% fall, compared with a 7% drop for Bittensor (TAO). Render (RENDER) lost 8%, while Pearl (PEARL) suffered the largest decline at 12%.

Those declines left AI-related tokens among the crypto market's weakest-performing categories over the period.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin has rebounded to $71,500 but remains 3.7% lower over the past 24 hours.