By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
The crypto market lacks clear direction. Bitcoin is still in its dull range between $90,000 and $95,000, and there is little cheer in the broader market, as evidenced by over 2% declines in the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) and CoinDesk 80 (CD80) indexes. ZEC is the only major token to gain more than 3% over 24 hours.
The lackluster action could be due to traders pushing back any plans for bullish bets until after tomorrow’s Fed rate meeting, which could bring volatility.
“Given the potential for significant bilateral volatility before and after the FOMC event, clients looking to increase upside exposures for Q1 2026 have expressed a preference to delay execution until after the event, and we expect this flow to increase significantly in the latter part of this week,” TDX Strategies founder Dick Lo said in a market note.
The Fed meeting starts today and ends tomorrow, with a 25 basis point rate cut priced in. Some traders are concerned that the decision could be accompanied by hawkish forward guidance pointing to slower easing in 2026.
According to CF Benchmarks, these expectations could set the stage for a rally.
“Looking at Fed Funds futures today, the market is pricing in a rate cut on Wednesday, but not another one until June. We think there is some upside here should the Fed signal the potential for another cut before the June meeting. That becomes more likely if the labor market continues to soften and inflation expectations remain in the 2-3% range,” the index provider told CoinDesk.
Key metrics such as the cumulative volume delta (CVD) indicate continued dominance of sellers in the spot market.
“Spot flows remain soft. Spot CVD fell from –$40M to –$111M, signaling sustained sales flow even as price holds at $90K,” said Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN.
In other news, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin is seizing on proposals to make Ethereum transactions more predictable and create a trustless onchain gas futures market.
Crypto exchange KuCoin released a Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) Gateway proof-of-concept, an experimental prototype gateway system designed to integrate quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms.
In traditional markets, the 10-year US Treasury yield continued to rise, hitting three-month highs, and the yen traded weak despite BOJ rate hike expectations. Pay attention!
Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today
What to see
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Crypto
- December 9: Twenty One Capital begins trading on the NYSE under the ticker XXI following a corporate merger with Cantor Equity Partners (CEP).
- Macro
- 9 December at 7: Mexico November inflation. Headline YoY Est. 3.69%, MoM Est. 0.56%. Core YY Est. 4.34%, MoM Est. 0.10%.
- 9 December at 08.15: ADP employment change weekly (previous -13.5K).
- 9 December at 10: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) Report. September Job Openings Est. 7.2 million, Sept. Job stops (previously 3,091 million).
- Earnings (Estimated based on FactSet data)
Token Events
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- ENS DAO votes for a “temperature check” to commission an independent review of its operations and spending over the past two years. Voting ends December 9.
- The CoW DAO votes on CIP-76 to approve a 2026 budget of 13.8 million USDC and a 100 million COW token top-up for its Core Team operations and incentives. Voting ends December 9.
- GnosisDAO votes on GIP-144 to renew Blockscout’s hosting and SLA services for the 2026 calendar year. Voting ends December 9.
- Unlocks
- The token is launched
- December 9: HumidiFi’s WET token claim period starts, liquidity pools go live.
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is down 1.27% as of 16 ET Wednesday at $90,255.53 (24 hours: -2.09%)
- ETH is down 0.84% to $3,106.60 (24h: -1.73%)
- CoinDesk 20 is down 0.87% to 2,877.34 (24h: -2.11%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 3 bps to 2.81%
- BTC funding rate is at 0.0068% (7.46% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is little changed at 99.05
- Gold futures are up 0.37% at $4,233.50
- Silver futures are up 1.14% at $59.07
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.14% at 50,655.10
- The Hang Seng closed up 1.29% at 25,434.23
- The FTSE is up 0.13% to 9,657.24
- The Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.16% to 5,716.21
- The DJIA closed down 0.45% on Monday at 47,739.32
- The S&P 500 closed up 0.35% at 6,846.51
- The Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.14% at 23,545.90
- The S&P/TSX Composite closed up 0.45% at 31,169.97
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed unchanged at 3,127.62
- The US 10-year Treasury yield fell 1.4 bps to 4.158%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures rose 0.08% to 6,861.25
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures rose 0.04% to 25,673.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures rose 0.11% to 47,846.00
Bitcoin statistics
- BTC dominance: 59.24% (unchanged)
- Ether to bitcoin ratio: 0.03444 (unchanged)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,042 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $38.26
- Total fees: 2.61 BTC / $237,648
- CME Futures open interest: 121,520 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 21.4 oz
- BTC vs Gold Market Cap: 6.04%
Technical Analysis
- The chart shows BTC’s daily price action in candlestick format.
- BTC has posted higher lows and highs since November 21, creating a mini-rising channel within a broader downtrend.
- In other words, the latest increase represents a temporary relief meeting and must extend beyond $96,600. That would confirm a breakout from the downtrend and revive the bullish outlook.
Crypto stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed Monday at $274.2 (+1.66%), pre-market down 0.71% to $272.26
- Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $83.96 (-1.94%), -0.98% at $83.21
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $26.09 (+2.27%), +0.8% at $26.3
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $45.93 (-1.12%), unchanged
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $12.05 (+2.64%), -1.24% at $11.9
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $14.96 (unchanged), -0.87% at $14.83
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $17.69 (+3.39%), -0.17% at $17.66
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $13.89 (+1.28%), -0.43% at $13.83
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $46.43 (+1.98%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $14.84 (+1.57%)
Crypto Treasury Companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $183.69 (+2.63%), -1.05% at $181.77
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $19.77 (+5.89%), unchanged.
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $11.06 (+3.17%), -1.45% at $10.90
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $2.61 (-1.88%), +1.53% at $2.65
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.72 (+2.99%)
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs
- Daily net flows: -$60.4 million
- Cumulative net flows: $57.54 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.3m
Spot ETH ETFs
- Daily Net Flows: $35.5M
- Cumulative net flows: $12.93 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~6.25m
Source: Farside Investors
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