Not waiting for what has become its usual Sunday night rush hour, bitcoin gets an early start to the weekend this holiday season, continuing an overnight decline and slipping back to $90,000 in early US trading.
The move reverses much of the rejection from last Sunday night’s panicked plunge that pushed bitcoin all the way back to $84,000.
Ethereum’s Ether is 2% lower in tandem with BTC, while other leading altcoins such as Solana , , and have fallen more than 4% each.
The move could reinforce earlier analyst forecasts that instead of a quick recovery, more consolidation is ahead towards the end of the year for the crypto market.
Crypto-related stocks are significantly lower across the board as a result, with Strategy (MSTR), Galaxy Digital (GLXY), CleanSpark (CLSK), and American Bitcoin (ABTC) among those sporting declines of 4%-7%.
According to Velo data, the most bearish time of day over the past six months has been the hour before the US market opens and the first hour of US trading.
Friday has also been the most consistently bearish day of the week during the same time period.
Anecdotal inflation data raises hope
University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment figures released at 10 a.m. ET may ease the bearish sentiment for the rest of the day.
Although highly anecdotal and tending to be influenced by which political parties respondents favor, the 1-year consumer inflation expectation fell to 4.1% from 4.5% previously and 4.5% expected. The 5-year consumer inflation expectation fell to 3.2% from 3.4% previously and 3.4% expected.
With a lack of official economic data lately, these private investigations have taken on a new level of importance, and bitcoin managed a modest bump back to the $91,000 area in the minutes following the report.
With the Fed more or less a 100% bet to trim interest rates at its final meeting of the year next week, traders are now focused on the start of next year. To the extent that inflation slows, it could make room for further rate cuts in the first quarter of 2026, potentially bullish action for risk markets, including crypto.
