By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
Bitcoin returned to near $90,000, reversing Sunday’s decline to trade largely unchanged over 24 hours. The same can be said for the broader market, with both the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) and CoinDesk 80 (CD80) indexes little changed. The only notable gainer is the RAIN token, which has added over 6%.
BTC’s rally is in line with 0.5% gains in futures linked to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, and with the continued weak tone in the dollar.
“Price action is compressed. Volatility is present, but conviction is not. This remains a market waiting for a catalyst,” Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, said in an email.
Catalysts abound this week: US retail sales, jobs data, inflation reports and more Fed speakers will take center stage, influencing expectations of how quickly the central bank can ease interest rates next year. In addition, the Bank of Japan is expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points.
“Any upside surprise risks reinforcing the ‘hawkish cut’ narrative, while softer data could reopen the door to risk assets at year-end. For crypto, macro sensitivity remains elevated until clarity emerges,” Misir noted.
Market sentiment has turned fearful according to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, turning the pain trade higher. The market cleaner too, nearly $300 million in leveraged bets were wiped out in 24 hours, mostly longs, according to Coinglass. These factors support price increases.
However, bears also have a reason to feel brave. While the MOVE index, which represents the 30-day implied volatility in government bonds, suggests renewed bullishness or an increase in bond market turbulence, market jitters usually accompany increased volatility in government bonds.
Coincidentally, Nasdaq technicals are pointing to an end to the recovery rally from November, and the BTC options market continues to show a bias for puts across multiple timeframes.
In other news, BTC’s hash rate, or the computing power dedicated to the blockchain, reportedly fell 8% to 1,200 EH/s. Nano Labs’ founder, Kong Jianping, linked the decline to the closure of mining operations in Xinjiang, China.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission released a Wallet and Custody Investor Guide that outlines risks across different custody models and best practices. It warned investors to assess whether custodians are rehypothecating assets or commingling assets.
In traditional markets, gold extended the rally, while some analysts warned that the downside of the dollar index looks limited. 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
- 15 December at 5: Asters L1 testnet AMA on Discord.
- 15 December at 10: Conflux (CFX) AMA on “AI Agents in Web3” at X Spaces.
- Macro
- 15 December at 08.30: Canada November Inflation rate. Headline YoY Est. 2.3%, MoM Est. 0.1%. Core y/y (previously 2.9%), MoM (previously 0.6%).
- 15 December at 9:30 a.m.: Federal Reserve Governor Stephen I. Miran speech (“The Inflation Outlook”). Watch live.
- 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
- The Streamr DAO votes to incentivize its CEO and CTO with performance-based token grants that are only triggered if the DATA price hits specific milestones between $0.05 and $1.00. Voting ends December 15.
- December 15: Linea, MetaMask and Consensys participate in a year-end audit for 2025.
- Unlocks
- December 15: to unlock 1.61% of its circulating supply, worth $21.99 million.
- December 15: to unlock 5.07% of its circulating supply, worth $13.87 million.
- The token is launched
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is down 0.46% as of 16 ET Friday at $89,821.87 (24 hours: -0.07%)
- ETH is up 2.47% to $3,160.25 (24h: +1.65%)
- CoinDesk 20 is up 0.3% to 2,853.05 (24h: +0.24%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 3 bps to 2.81%
- BTC funding rate is at -0.0017% (-1.8407% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is little changed at 98.32
- Gold futures are up 1.16% at $4,378.70
- Silver futures are up 2.78% at $63.73
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 1.31% at 50,168.11
- The Hang Seng closed up 1.34% at 25,628.88
- The FTSE is up 0.83% to 9,729.49
- The Euro Stoxx 50 rose 0.6% to 5,754.91
- The DJIA closed Friday down 0.50% at 48,458.05
- The S&P 500 closed up 1.07% at 6,827.41
- The Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.69% at 23,195.17
- The S&P/TSX Composite closed up 0.42% at 31,527.39
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed unchanged at 3,173.29
- The US 10-year Treasury yield is down 2.6 bps to 4.17%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures rose 0.5% to 6,865.00
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures rose 0.5% to 25,338.50
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures rose 0.47% to 49,090.00
Bitcoin statistics
- BTC Dominance: 59.13% (+0.13%)
- Ether to bitcoin ratio: 0.03516 (1.21%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,064 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $38.35
- Total Fees: 1.93 BTC / $172,697
- CME Futures open interest: 124,275 BTC
- BTC Priced in Gold: 20.6 oz.
- BTC vs Gold Market Cap: 6.01%
Technical Analysis
- The chart shows daily fluctuations in the price of the stars (XLM) token in candlestick format.
- Prices have dipped below a sideways consolidation pattern, signaling a broader downtrend represented by the descending trend line.
- The division has shifted focus to the April low of 20 cents.
Crypto stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed Friday at $267.46 (-0.58%), +0.41% at $268.56 in premarket
- Circle (CRCL): closed at $83.47 (-5.76%), +0.97% at $84.28
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $26.75 (-10.42%), +1.23% at $27.08
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $43.54 (-4.05%), -0.18% at $43.46
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $11.52 (-2.7%), +0.52% at $11.58
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $15.30 (-2.86%), +0.65% at $15.40
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $16.53 (-5%), +0.42% at $16.60
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $14.03 (-5.33%), unchanged in pre-market
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $42.74 (-7.77%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $15.23 (-8.2%), +1.31% at $15.43
Crypto Treasury Companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $176.45 (-3.74%), +0.32% at $177.02
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $17.97 (-6.5%)
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $10.51 (-8.85%), +1.71% at $10.69
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $2.26 (-6.22%)
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.71 (-5.52%)
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs
- Daily Net Flows: $49.1M
- Cumulative net flows: $57.89 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.31M
Spot ETH ETFs
- Daily net flows: -$19.4 million
- Cumulative net flows: $13.11 billion
- Total ETH holding ~6.32 million
Source: Farside Investors
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