By Omkar Godbole (All times Eastern unless otherwise noted)
Bitcoin Gold prices have fluctuated between $86,000 and $88,000 over the past 24 hours, with Tuesday’s U.S. jobs data failing to bring meaningful moves. The price is approaching a major technical level, a break above which could spell more pain.
The number of BTC/USD longs (bullish bets) on Bitfinex continues to rise, reaching 72,184 lots at press time, the highest level since February 2024. This may sound counterintuitive, but historically increases in bulls have tended to be contrarian indicators that accompany longer-term downtrends.
Following an outflow of $357.69 million on Monday, 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs listed in the United States lost another $227 million on Tuesday, adding to the misery. As a result, the ETF lost more than $584 million in two days. That’s more than double last week’s net inflows of $286.6 million, according to SoSoValue. Clearly, institutional interest in Bitcoin has waned, leaving the market in a fragile state.
The U.S. unemployment rate surged to its highest level since April 2021 on Tuesday, but there was a lack of bullish reaction. The number supports the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut bets and also shows that the market is exhausted.
“For cryptocurrencies, the lack of reaction is telling. The market appears to be more focused on internal liquidity and positioning than macro releases,” said Timothy Misir, director of research at BRN. “Until macro data significantly changes interest rate expectations or liquidity conditions, price action is likely to remain range-bound and reactive rather than directional.”
Speaking of positioning, options market data shows that the near-term trading range is expected to be between $85,000 and $100,000.
Within the broader cryptocurrency market, there are some winners, such as those based on Cardano The coin, rose 9% in 24 hours. SKY and XMR each gained 4%, while the remaining top 100 coins posted losses. Both the CoinDesk 20 and CoinDesk 80 indexes declined during the period.
Shares of cryptocurrency exchange HashKey fell 5% after listing in Hong Kong early Wednesday.
In the traditional market, the U.S. dollar index has rebounded from a 2.5-month low to above 98.00, and the 10-year Treasury bond yield has stabilized above 4.10%. The yuan remains at two-month highs, giving policymakers room to stimulate a slowing economy. Stay alert!
Read more: For analysis of today’s altcoin and derivatives activity, see Today’s Cryptocurrency Market
What to see
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- cryptocurrency
- Macro
- December 17: Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller speaks (“Economic Outlook”). Watch live.
- income (Estimate based on FactSet data)
Token event
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- The SSV network is voting to simplify committee operations (DIP-47) and cap the ETH/SSV fee ratio at 700 (DIP-49). Voting closes on December 17.
- December 17: VeChain, Plume, and Aleo discuss RWAfi’s growing institutional momentum.
- December 17: Venus Protocol, Solv Protocol, BounceBit, BNB Chain and Lista DAO jointly discuss the new chapter of BNB Chain in 2026 and the future
- Unlock
- Token issuance
Meeting
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
market trend
- BTC is down 1.51% since 4pm ET on Tuesday to $86,436.95 (24 hours: +1.14%)
- ETH fell 0.89% to $2,924.45 (24 hours: -1.17%)
- CoinDesk 20 down 1.45% to 2,702.96 (24 hours: -0.88%)
- The comprehensive pledge rate of Ethereum CESR increased by 1 basis point to 2.85%
- The BTC financing interest rate on Binance is 0.0098% (annualized 10.7222%)
- DXY rose 0.41% to 98.55
- Gold futures rose 0.24% to $4,342.80
- Silver futures rose 4.13% to $65.94
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.26% at 49,512.28 points
- The Hang Seng Index closed up 0.92% to 25,468.78 points
- The FTSE rose 1.68% to 9,847.03
- Europe’s Stoxx 50 rose 0.2% to 5,729.49
- The Dow closed down 0.62% on Tuesday to 48,114.26
- The S&P 500 closed down 0.24% at 6,800.26 points
- The Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 0.23% at 23,111.46 points
- The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 0.7% at 31,263.93 points
- The S&P 40 Latin America Index closed down 2.46% at 3,100.62 points
- The U.S. 10-year Treasury bond rate rose 2.1 basis points to 4.17%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures rose 0.34% to 6,879.50
- E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.38% to 25,476.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.21% to 48,583.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- Bitcoin dominance: 59.34% (-0.11%)
- Ethereum-Bitcoin ratio: 0.03373 (0.03%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,068 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $36.97
- Total fee: 2.72 BTC / $236,707
- CME Futures Open Interest: 122,645 BTC
- BTC in gold: 20 ounces.
- Bitcoin and gold market capitalization: 5.82%
technical analysis
- The chart shows daily changes in the dominance of the largest stablecoin USDT, a measure of the coin’s share of the overall cryptocurrency market.
- The dominant rate has crossed above the three-year downtrend line, confirming a bullish breakout.
- This means Tether is likely to grab more market share in the coming weeks, a common scenario during bear markets.
crypto stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): Closed Tuesday at $252.61 (+0.87%), unchanged pre-market
- Circle (CRCL): Closed at $83 (+9.99%), -0.12% at $82.90
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): Closed at $24.31 (-0.94%)
- Bullish (BLSH): Closed at $42.96 (+1.25%), -0.33% at $42.82
- MARA Holdings (MARA): -0.09% closed at $10.69, -0.47% closed at $10.64
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): Closed at $13.47 (-1.75%), -0.3% at $13.43
- Core Scientific (CORZ): Closed at $14.73 (-3.6%)
- CleanSpark (CLSK): Closed at $11.86 (-0.46%), unchanged pre-market
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miner ETF (WGMI): Closed at $38.36 (+1.13%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): Closed at $14.43 (+6.42%)
Cryptocurrency Treasury Corporation
- Strategy (MSTR): Closed at $167.50 (+3.34%), -0.87% at $166.05
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): Closed at $17.40 (+8.55%)
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): Closed at $9.71 (+2.1%), -0.21% at $9.69
- Upexi (UPXI): Closed at $2.05 (+0.49%)
- Lite Strategies (LITS): Closed at $1.52 (-0.65%)
ETF flows
Spot BTC ETF
- Net daily traffic: -$277.2 million
- Cumulative net flow: $57.25 billion
- Total BTC holdings are approximately 1.31 million
Spot ETH ETF
- Net daily traffic: -$224.2 million
- Cumulative net flow: $12.66 billion
- The total amount of ETH held is about 6.23 million
Source: Farside Investors