By Francisco Rodrigues (All times Eastern Time unless otherwise noted)
bitcoin rose above $88,000 even after the Bank of Japan raised interest rates to the highest level in nearly 30 years, a move that would have been expected to strengthen the yen and make the carry trade less attractive.
Instead, the currency weakened on concerns that higher rates would jeopardize the spending plans of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office in October. The 10-year Japanese government bond yield hit 2% for the first time since 2006.
Other cryptocurrencies also advanced. Ether added 3.4% in the last 24 hours, although major altcoins including BNB and SOL are up less than 1%. The broader CoinDesk 20 index (CD20) advanced 1.3%.
In the background is the colder than expected US inflation data, released yesterday. That report strengthened the chances that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in the future, a potential boon for risk assets, although prediction markets still overwhelmingly point to no rate cut next month.
Beyond that, risk assets still face the potential fallout from AI trading.
“Capital continues to flow aggressively into AI infrastructure, but monetization issues are increasingly difficult to ignore,” wrote analysts at QCP Capital. “Major players like Oracle and Iren are increasing capex, while AI-related revenue remains comparatively stable.”
Risk asset valuations could sink if revenues fail to materialize, analysts said. Several crypto companies are benefiting from AI trading, especially bitcoin miners who have started tapping into AI infrastructure in multi-million dollar deals.
Regulatory developments are also supporting market development.
“The United States is prepared to solidify the GENIUS Act regulatory architecture in 2026,” Ira Auerbach, head of Tandem at Offchain Labs and former head of digital assets at Nasdaq, told CoinDesk. “Stablecoin issuers that once relied on offshore regimes will find significant advantages in bringing reserves and operations back to US soil.”
Auerbach also said that some retirement plan providers are preparing to test balanced, target-date funds with 0.5% to 1% cryptocurrency exposure, which could create steady demand that is less tied to market cycles.
“Treat digital assets less as an inflection factor and more as another risk component in long-term portfolio construction, which is how structural demand begins to take shape,” Auerbach added. 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 19: ADRs sponsored by Metaplanet Inc. begin trading over-the-counter in the US under the symbol MPJPY. They will replace existing, unsponsored OTC trading under the MTPLF symbol.
- Macro
- December 19, 10am: University of Michigan US December (Final) Survey. Estimated consumer sentiment index. 53.4; Estimated inflation expectations. 4.1%.
- 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
- Lido DAO is voting on a transformative package to move from a pure staking protocol to a diversified DeFi product suite over the next three years. Voting ends on December 19.
- CoW DAO is voting to disband the Sprinter solver pegging group and return the 500,000 USDC and 1.5 million COW deposited to the original funders. Voting ends on December 19.
- Arbitrum DAO is voting to activate the ArbOS 51 update, introducing a transaction gas limit of 32 million, dynamic gas targets, and a doubled minimum base fee to improve network scalability. Voting ends on December 19.
- December 19: Avantis will host a debate on the Leverage League.
- Unlock
- December 20: to unlock 6.79% of its circulating supply worth $37.28 million.
- Token releases
- December 19: ZkPass (ZKP) will appear on Binance, MEXC, Bybit, BingX and others.
Conferences
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is up 2.91% since 4 pm ET on Wednesday to $88,092.82 (24 hours: +0.73%)
- ETH is up 6.82% to $2,969 (24 hours: -3.87%)
- CoinDesk 20 rose 3.33% to 2,707.79 (24 hours: +1.22%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 1bp to 2.86%
- BTC funding rate is 0.01% (10.95% annualized) on Binance
- DXY rises 0.23% to 98.65
- Gold futures unchanged at $4,360.50
- Silver futures rise 1.73% to $66.35
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 1.03% at 49,507.21
- Hang Seng closed up 0.75% at 25,690.53
- The FTSE is down 0.10% at 9,828.28
- Euro Stoxx 50 unchanged at 5,745.04
- DJIA closed up 0.14% at 47,951.85
- The S&P 500 closed up 0.79% at 6,774.76
- Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.38% at 23,006.36
- S&P/TSX Composite closed up 0.61% at 31,440.85
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed up 1.15% at 3,093.49
- The 10-year US Treasury rate rises 2.9 bp to 4.145%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures up 0.27% to 6,849.00
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures rise 0.4% to 25,363.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average index futures unchanged at 48,356.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 59.94% (+0.13%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.03347 (1.19%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,031 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $37.57
- Total fees: 2.74 BTC / $237,800
- CME Futures Open Interest: 120,865 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 20.3 oz.
- BTC market capitalization against gold: 5.9%
Technical analysis
- BTC/USD is currently stuck between the support at $84,200 and the weekly resistance at $90,500. While the 0.382 Fibonacci level sits below $84,200, the current price action remains above it, supported by a clear bullish RSI divergence where momentum is increasing despite price consolidation.
- A decisive weekly close above $90,500 would validate this divergence, likely triggering a trend continuation towards the 0.236 Fib target at $100,400.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Thursday at $239.20 (-2.04%), +3.24% to $246.94 in premarket
- Círculo (CRCL): closed at $80.99 (+2.26%), +3.04% to $83.45
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $22.51 (-1.32%), +3.07% to $23.20
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $42.88 (+1.73%), +1.28% to $43.43
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $9.69 (-2.42%), +2.68% at $9.95
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $13.38 (+3.24%), +3.21% at $13.81
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $14.56 (+7.3%), +3.71% to $15.10
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $11.20 (-2.44%), +3.66% to $11.61
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $37.49 (+2.68%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $15.21 (+4.61%)
Crypto treasury companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $158.24 (-1.33%), +3.71% at $164.11
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $17.11 (+1.06%)
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $9.02 (-2.7%), +5.1% to $9.48
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $1.88 (+0.53%)
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.35 (-1.46%)
ETF Flows
BTC Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$161.3 million
- Accumulated net flows: $57.55 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.31 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$96.6 million
- Accumulated net flows: 12,540 million dollars
- Total ETH holdings ~6.15 million
Source: Farside Investors
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