In what has become all too familiar at the start of the US trading day, the crypto sector quickly gave up more than even the slightest hint of an overnight rally.
Pushing above $89,000 at one point as the US slept on Friday, bitcoin quickly fell back below $87,000 as US stocks opened for trading after the Christmas holiday.
Again, all too familiar to crypto bulls, the poor price action occurred as metals continued to rise, with gold, silver, copper and platinum all posting new record highs on Friday.
Already attracting capital that might otherwise go to bitcoin as part of the global breakout trade, the metals may also be benefiting today from rising geopolitical tensions after the US hit Islamic State targets in Nigeria on Christmas Day and stepped up pressure on Venezuela by blocking sanctioned oil tankers.
Palladium and platinum led the metals up, both up more than 10%, while silver and copper gained 5%. Gold is ahead 1.5% at $4,573 per ounces.
The Nasdaq, S&P 500 and DJIA were all trading almost unchanged in morning action.
Bitcoin was lower by 1.6% over the past 24 hours; ether was down the same way. was at more than 4% and fell 3%, leading to losses for the rest of the sector.
Crypto stocks were also in the red, with Coinbase (COIN), named one of the three most promising fintech ideas of 2026 by Clear Street’s Owen Lau, outperforming with just a 2% drop. Gemini (GEMI) fell 6%, Bullish (BLSH) fell 3.8% and Galaxy Digital (GLXY) fell 3.5%.
Bitcoin miners were hit particularly hard in the early post-Christmas trading session – even those that have pivoted business models from mining BTC to AI infrastructure. IREN (IREN), Cipher Mining (CIFR), Terawulf (WULF) and Marathon Digital (MARA) were among those down 5% or more. Hut 8 (HUT) was an outstanding performer over the past week on its own AI plans, and Hut 8 (HUT) led the losers list on Friday, down 7.5%.
