By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
Bitcoin generated between $86,000 and $88,000 over the past 24 hours as US jobs data released on Tuesday failed to inject significant volatility. The price is near a major technical level that, if broken, could bring even more pain.
The number of long BTC/USD positions (bullish bets) on Bitfinex continues to climb, reaching 72,184 at press time, the highest since February 2024. This may seem counterintuitive, but rising long positions have historically proven to be contrarian indicators, accompanying prolonged downtrends.
Adding to the gloom, the 11 U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $227 million on Tuesday following Monday’s $357.69 million outflow. Thus, in two days, ETFs lost more than $584 million. That’s more than double last week’s net inflow of $286.60 million, according to SoSoValue. Clearly, institutional appetite for BTC has weakened, leaving the market in a fragile state.
The lack of bullish response to Tuesday’s rise in the U.S. unemployment rate to its highest level since April 2021, a figure that supports Fed rate cut bets, also indicates market exhaustion.
“For cryptocurrencies, the lack of reaction is telling. Markets seem more focused on internal liquidity and positioning than macro releases,” said Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN. “Until macroeconomic data significantly changes rate expectations or liquidity conditions, price action will likely remain limited and reactive rather than directional.”
Speaking of positioning, options market data suggests expectations for a wide trading range between $85,000 and $100,000 in the near term.
In the broader crypto market, there are winners like Cardano-based Bitcoin. token, which gained 9% in 24 hours. SKY and XMR added 4% each, while the rest of the top 100 tokens are in the red. The CoinDesk 20 and CoinDesk 80 indices are both down over the period.
Shares of crypto exchange HashKey fell 5% early Wednesday following their Hong Kong debut.
In traditional markets, the dollar index rallied from a 2.5-month low to above 98.00, with the 10-year Treasury yield holding above 4.10%. China’s yuan remains at a two-month high, giving policymakers room to boost the slowing economy. Stay vigilant!
Read more: For analysis of current altcoin and derivatives activity, see Crypto Markets Today
What to watch
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Cryptocurrency
- Macro
- December 17: Speech by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller (“Economic Outlook”). Watch live.
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
Token Events
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Votes and calls on governance
- SSV Network votes to streamline 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 will discuss the growing institutional dynamics within RWAfi.
- December 17: Venus Protocol, Solv Protocol, BounceBit, BNB Chain and Lista DAO to discuss BNB Chain’s new chapter in 2026 and beyond
- Unlocks
- Token Launches
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is down 1.51% from 4 p.m. ET Tuesday at $86,436.95 (24 hours: +1.14%)
- ETH is down 0.89% at $2,924.45 (24 hours: -1.17%)
- CoinDesk 20 is down 1.45% at 2,702.96 (24 hours: -0.88%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate Up 1bp to 2.85%
- BTC funding rate is 0.0098% (10.7222% annualized) on Binance
- The DXY is up 0.41% at 98.55
- Gold futures are up 0.24% at $4,342.80
- Silver futures are up 4.13% at $65.94
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.26% at 49,512.28
- Hang Seng closed 0.92% higher at 25,468.78
- The FTSE is up 1.68% at 9,847.03
- The Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.2% at 5,729.49
- DJIA closed Tuesday down 0.62% at 48,114.26
- The S&P 500 closed down 0.24% at 6,800.26
- The Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.23% at 23,111.46
- The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 0.7% at 31,263.93
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed down 2.46% at 3,100.62
- The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield is up 2.1 basis points at 4.17%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.34% at 6,879.50
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.38% at 25,476.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 0.21% at 48,583.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 59.34% (-0.11%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.03373 (0.03%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,068 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $36.97
- Total fees: 2.72 BTC / $236,707
- CME Futures Open Interest: 122,645 BTC
- BTC valued in gold: 20 oz.
- BTC vs. gold market capitalization: 5.82%
Technical analysis
- The chart shows daily changes in the dominance of USDT, the largest stablecoin, a measure of the token’s share of the total crypto market.
- The dominance rate has broken above the three-year descending trendline, confirming a bullish breakout.
- This means that Tether could capture more market share in the coming weeks, a scenario typically seen during bear markets.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed Tuesday at $252.61 (+0.87%), unchanged in pre-market
- Circle (CRCL): closed at $83 (+9.99%), -0.12% at $82.90
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $24.31 (-0.94%)
- Bull (BLSH): closed at $42.96 (+1.25%), -0.33% at $42.82
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $10.69 (-0.09%), -0.47% at $10.64
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): close 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 in pre-market
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): Closed at $38.36 (+1.13%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $14.43 (+6.42%)
Crypto Cash Companies
- 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 Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.52 (-0.65%)
ETF Feed
Spot BTC ETF
- Daily net flows: -$277.2 million
- Cumulative net flows: $57.25 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.31 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$224.2 million
- Cumulative net flows: $12.66 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~6.23 million
Source: Farside Investors
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