Bitcoin reversed gains made earlier in Asia, puncturing nascent recovery rallies in major alternative cryptocurrencies.
The leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization fell below $88,000 after peeking above $90,000, CoinDesk data shows. Major altcoins included ether solana and also repeated their course. The CoinDesk 20 index (CD20) retreated to 2,726, about where it was at the start of Asia, before rising to 2,789.
The decline is consistent with weakness in stock index futures. At the time of writing, futures linked to Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index were trading 0.5% lower on the day, pointing to a cautious start to trading.
BTC and Nasdaq share a strong positive correlation that becomes more pronounced during the Nasdaq decline, according to Wintermute.
The pullback caused traders to slightly reduce their leveraged bets. Data from Coinglass shows that cumulative open interest in futures listed worldwide fell to around 533,000 BTC from the 540,000 BTC seen earlier today. Open interest had increased from 524,000 BTC as the bitcoin price rose to $90,000.
The cryptocurrency has recently tended to underperform in US hours, according to Laser Digital.
“An interesting trend to note has been the distinct underperformance in the US time zone. (both BTC, ETH down 3%+ over US hours [last week] offset by strength in Asian hours) most likely driven by year-end tax collection selling pressure as crypto has been a major underperformer among global assets this year,” analysts at Laser Digital wrote in a research note on Monday.
John Glover, an Elliott wave expert and chief investment officer at crypto lender Ledn, signaled a bullish outlook.
“The bitcoin price chart looks very promising for higher prices in the future, but less certainty in the near term. I continue to look for the market to trade sideways to slightly lower in the coming weeks/months, looking to add to longs between $71k and $84k,” Glover told CoinDesk in an email.
