Bitcoin, crypto market slide to two-month lows

Bitcoin and Ether both dropped to their lowest prices since August late Sunday. Bitcoin fell to $73,708. Ether fell to $2,223. The trigger was the US midterms. Democrats won control of Congress, and traders are betting that means tougher crypto rules are coming. The selloff wiped out roughly $1 billion in leveraged bets, CoinDesk reported.

This wasn't the only thing weighing on prices. Crypto markets were already nursing a $6.3 billion hack at Binance, the world's biggest exchange. The FBI has blamed North Korean hackers for that one. That story has been unfolding for weeks now. Layer a surprise political result on top, and traders de-risk fast. None of the feared new regulation actually exists yet. Congress hasn't written a bill, let alone passed one. Right now this is a market pricing in a guess about the future, not reacting to an actual new rule.

Keep reading — what to watch

Does this slide keep going, or was this just a one-night overreaction? Midterm results don't become law by themselves. Someone in Congress still has to write an actual crypto bill, and it has to pass. Until that happens, prices are reacting to a mood, not a policy. Watch whether Bitcoin holds above its old lows this week. If it does, this was fear. If it breaks further, something else is going on.