By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
bitcoin has fluctuated between $86,000 and $88,000 in the last 24 hours, and Tuesday’s US employment data failed to inject significant volatility. The price is close to an important technical level that, if broken, could cause more pain.
The number of BTC/USD long positions (bullish bets) on Bitfinex continues to rise, reaching 72,184 at press time, the highest level since February 2024. It may seem counterintuitive, but historically the increase in long positions has proven to be contrarian indicators, accompanying prolonged bearish trends.
Adding to the pessimism, the 11 US-listed bitcoin spot ETFs lost $227 million on Tuesday following Monday’s outflow of $357.69 million. Thus, in two days, the ETFs have lost more than 584 million dollars. That’s more than double last week’s $286.60 million net inflow, according to SoSoValue. Clearly, institutional appetite for BTC has weakened, leaving the market in a fragile state.
The lack of a bullish response to Tuesday’s rise in the US unemployment rate to its highest level since April 2021, a figure that supports the Fed’s bets for a rate cut, also points to market exhaustion.
“For cryptocurrencies, the lack of reaction is telling. Markets seem more focused on internal liquidity and positioning than macro releases,” said Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN. “Until macroeconomic data significantly changes rate expectations or liquidity conditions, price action is likely to remain range-bound and reactive rather than directional.”
Speaking of positioning, options market data points to expectations of a wide trading range between $85,000 and $100,000 in the short term.
In the broader crypto market, there are some winners like Cardano. token, which has gained 9% in 24 hours. SKY and XMR have added 4% each, while the rest of the top 100 tokens are in the red. The CoinDesk 20 and CoinDesk 80 indices fell during the period.
Shares of crypto exchange HashKey fell 5% early Wednesday following its debut in Hong Kong.
In traditional markets, the dollar index has recovered from 2.5-month lows to above 98.00, and the 10-year Treasury yield remains stable above 4.10%. The Chinese yuan continues to trade at two-month highs, giving authorities room to stimulate the slowing economy. 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
- Macro
- December 17: Speech by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller (“Economic 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
- SSV Network is voting to streamline committee operations (DIP-47) and cap the ETH/SSV fee ratio at 700 (DIP-49). Voting ends on December 17.
- December 17: VeChain, Plume and Aleo will discuss the growing institutional momentum in RWAfi.
- December 17: Venus Protocol, Solv Protocol, BounceBit, BNB Chain and DAO List to discuss BNB Chain’s new chapter in 2026 and beyond
- Unlock
- 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 1.51% since 4 pm ET on Tuesday to $86,436.95 (24 hours: +1.14%)
- ETH is down 0.89% to $2,924.45 (24 hours: -1.17%)
- CoinDesk 20 is down 1.45% to 2,702.96 (24 hours: -0.88%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate Up 1bp to 2.85%
- BTC funding rate is 0.0098% (10.7222% annualized) on Binance
- DXY rises 0.41% to 98.55
- Gold futures rise 0.24% to $4,342.80
- Silver futures rise 4.13% to $65.94
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.26% at 49,512.28
- Hang Seng closed up 0.92% at 25,468.78
- The FTSE rises 1.68% to 9,847.03
- The Euro Stoxx 50 rises 0.2% to 5,729.49
- DJIA closed Tuesday down 0.62% at 48,114.26
- The S&P 500 closed down 0.24% at 6,800.26
- Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.23% at 23,111.46
- S&P/TSX Composite closed down 0.7% at 31,263.93
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed with a fall of 2.46% to 3,100.62
- The 10-year US Treasury rate rises 2.1 basis points to 4.17%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures rise 0.34% to 6,879.50
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures rise 0.38% to 25,476.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average index futures rose 0.21% to 48,583.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 59.34% (-0.11%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.03373 (0.03%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,068 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $36.97
- Total fees: 2.72 BTC / $236,707
- CME Futures Open Interest: 122,645 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 20 oz.
- BTC market capitalization against gold: 5.82%
Technical analysis
- The chart shows daily changes in the dominance of USDT, the largest stablecoin, a measure of the token’s share of the total crypto market.
- The dominance rate has broken above the three-year descending trend line, confirming a bullish breakout.
- It means Tether could capture greater market share in the coming weeks, a scenario typically seen during bear markets.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Tuesday at $252.61 (+0.87%), unchanged from the previous market
- Círculo (CRCL): closed at $83 (+9.99%), -0.12% to $82.90
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $24.31 (-0.94%)
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $42.96 (+1.25%), -0.33% at $42.82
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $10.69 (-0.09%), -0.47% at $10.64
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $13.47 (-1.75%), -0.3% at $13.43
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $14.73 (-3.6%)
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $11.86 (-0.46%), unchanged from the previous market
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $38.36 (+1.13%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $14.43 (+6.42%)
Crypto treasury companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $167.50 (+3.34%), -0.87% at $166.05
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $17.40 (+8.55%)
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $9.71 (+2.1%), -0.21% to $9.69
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $2.05 (+0.49%)
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.52 (-0.65%)
ETF Flows
BTC Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$277.2 million
- Accumulated net flows: $57.25 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.31 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$224.2 million
- Accumulated net flows: $12.66 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~6.23 million
Source: Farside Investors
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