Without waiting until what has become its usual Sunday night drop time, bitcoin is starting the weekend early this holiday season, continuing with an overnight drop and falling back to $90,000 in the first hours of US trading.
The move reverses much of the rebound from last Sunday night’s panic decline that pushed bitcoin back to $84,000.
Ethereum ether is 2% lower in conjunction with BTC, while other leading altcoins like Solana , , and They are down more than 4% each.
The move could reinforce analysts’ previous forecasts that, instead of a rapid rally, further consolidation is coming towards the end of the year for the crypto market.
As a result, cryptocurrency-related stocks are markedly lower across the board, with Strategy (MSTR), Galaxy Digital (GLXY), CleanSpark (CLSK), and American Bitcoin (ABTC) among those posting drops of 4% to 7%.
According to Velo data, the most bearish time of day over the past six months has been the hour before the US market opens and the first hour of trading in the United States.
Friday has also been the most bearish day of the week during the same time period.
Anecdotal data on inflation raises hope
Consumer sentiment numbers from the University of Michigan released at 10 a.m. ET could ease the bearish sentiment for the rest of the day.
Although highly anecdotal and tends to be influenced by the political party respondents favor, the December 1-year consumer inflation expectation fell to 4.1% from the previous 4.5% and the expected 4.5%. The five-year consumer inflation expectation fell to 3.2% from 3.4% previously and 3.4% expected.
With official economic data scarce lately, these private surveys have taken on a new level of importance and bitcoin managed a modest jump back to the $91,000 area in the minutes following the report.
With the Fed more or less 100% betting on cutting interest rates at its final meeting of the year next week, traders are now focused on the beginning of next year. To the extent that inflation subsides, it could lead to further rate cuts in the first quarter of 2026, a potentially bullish move for risk markets including cryptocurrencies.
