By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
bitcoin recovered to nearly $90,000, reversing Sunday’s decline and trading virtually unchanged for 24 hours. The same can be said for the broader market, with the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) and CoinDesk 80 (CD80) indices little changed. The only notable winner is the RAIN token, which has added more than 6%.
BTC’s recovery is consistent with the 0.5% gains in futures linked to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, and the continued weak tone of the dollar.
“Price action is compressed. Volatility is present, but conviction is not. This is still a market waiting for a catalyst,” Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, said in an email.
Catalysts abound this week: U.S. retail sales, employment data, inflation reports and several Federal Reserve speakers will take center stage, influencing expectations for how quickly the central bank could cut interest rates next year. Additionally, the Bank of Japan is expected to raise rates by 25 basis points.
“Any bullish surprise risks reinforcing the ‘aggressive tapering’ narrative, while weaker data could reopen the door to risk assets until the end of the year. For cryptocurrencies, macro sensitivity remains elevated until clarity emerges,” Misir noted.
Market sentiment has turned fearful, according to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, driving up trading pain. The market is cleaner, too: Nearly $300 million in leveraged bets were wiped out in 24 hours, mostly long positions, according to Coinglass. These factors support price gains.
Bears, however, also have reason to feel emboldened. While the MOVE index, which represents the 30-day implied volatility of Treasuries, suggests renewed optimism or an uptick in bond market turbulence, market declines typically accompany higher volatility in Treasuries.
Coincidentally, Nasdaq technical data points to an end to the recovery rally starting in November, and the BTC options market continues to show a put bias on multiple time frames.
In other news, BTC’s hash rate, or the computer power dedicated to the blockchain, fell 8% to 1,200 EH/s. Nano Labs founder Kong Jianping linked the drop to the closure of mining farms in Xinjiang, China.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published a guide for portfolio and custody investors, outlining the risks of different custody models and best practices. He warned investors to evaluate whether custodians remortgage assets or commingle them.
In traditional markets, gold extended its gains, while some analysts warned that the dollar index’s decline appears limited. Stay alert!
Read more: For an analysis of current activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today
What to watch
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Crypto
- December 15, 5 am: Aster L1 AMA Testnet on Discord.
- December 15, 10 am: Conflux (CFX) AMA on “AI Agents in Web3” at X Spaces.
- Macro
- December 15, 8:30 am: Canada’s November inflation rate. Headline Est. year-on-year 2.3%, est. monthly 0.1%. Core year-on-year (previous 2.9%), month-on-month (previous 0.6%).
- December 15, 9:30 am: speech by Federal Reserve Governor Stephen I. Miran (“The Inflation Outlook”). Watch live.
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
symbolic events
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- Streamr DAO is voting to incentivize its CEO and CTO with performance-based token grants that are minted only if the DATOS price reaches specific milestones between $0.05 and $1.00. Voting ends December 15.
- December 15: Linea, MetaMask and Consensys will participate in a 2025 year-end review.
- Unlock
- December 15: to unlock 1.61% of its circulating supply worth $21.99 million.
- December 15: to unlock 5.07% of its circulating supply worth $13.87 million.
- Token releases
Conferences
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is down 0.46% as of 4 pm ET Friday to $89,821.87 (24 hours: -0.07%)
- ETH is up 2.47% to $3,160.25 (24 hours: +1.65%)
- CoinDesk 20 rose 0.3% to 2,853.05 (24 hours: +0.24%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate Up 3 Basis Points to 2.81%
- BTC funding rate is at -0.0017% (-1.8407% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is little changed at 98.32
- Gold futures rise 1.16% to $4,378.70
- Silver futures rise 2.78% to $63.73
- The Nikkei 225 closed down 1.31% at 50,168.11
- Hang Seng closed down 1.34% at 25,628.88
- The FTSE rises 0.83% to 9,729.49
- The Euro Stoxx 50 rises 0.6% to 5,754.91
- DJIA closed Friday down 0.50% at 48,458.05
- The S&P 500 closed down 1.07% at 6,827.41
- Nasdaq Composite closed down 1.69% at 23,195.17
- S&P/TSX Composite closed down 0.42% at 31,527.39
- S&P 40 Latin America closed unchanged at 3,173.29
- The 10-year US Treasury rate fell 2.6 basis points to 4.17%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures up 0.5% to 6,865.00
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures rise 0.5% to 25,338.50
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average index futures rose 0.47% to 49,090.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 59.13% (+0.13%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.03516 (1.21%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,064 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $38.35
- Total fees: 1.93 BTC / $172,697
- CME Futures Open Interest: 124,275 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 20.6 oz.
- BTC market capitalization against gold: 6.01%
Technical analysis
- The chart shows the daily price swings of the Stellar Token (XLM) in candlestick format.
- Prices have fallen below a sideways consolidation pattern, indicating a broader downtrend represented by the descending trend line.
- The breakdown has shifted attention to the April low of 20 cents.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Friday at $267.46 (-0.58%), +0.41% at $268.56 in premarket
- Círculo (CRCL): closed at $83.47 (-5.76%), +0.97% to $84.28
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $26.75 (-10.42%), +1.23% to $27.08
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $43.54 (-4.05%), -0.18% at $43.46
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $11.52 (-2.7%), +0.52% at $11.58
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $15.30 (-2.86%), +0.65% at $15.40
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $16.53 (-5%), +0.42% at $16.60
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $14.03 (-5.33%), unchanged from the previous market
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $42.74 (-7.77%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $15.23 (-8.2%), +1.31% at $15.43
Crypto treasury companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $176.45 (-3.74%), +0.32% at $177.02
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $17.97 (-6.5%)
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $10.51 (-8.85%), +1.71% at $10.69
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $2.26 (-6.22%)
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.71 (-5.52%)
ETF Flows
BTC Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: $49.1 million
- Accumulated net flows: $57.89 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.31 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$19.4 million
- Accumulated net flows: $13.11 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~6.32 million
Source: Farside Investors
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