In what has become all too familiar at the start of the US trading day, the crypto sector quickly more than gave up any sign of an overnight rally.
Bitcoin surpassed $89,000 at one point as the United States slept on Friday. quickly fell back below $87,000 as U.S. stocks opened after the Christmas holiday.
Again all too familiar for crypto bulls, the bad price action occurred as metals continued to soar, with gold, silver, copper and platinum all posting new record highs on Friday.
Already attracting capital that might otherwise be invested in bitcoin as part of the global devaluation trade, the metals are now perhaps also benefiting from rising geopolitical tensions after the United States struck Islamic State targets in Nigeria on Christmas Day and increased pressure against Venezuela by blocking sanctioned oil tankers.
Palladium and platinum led the metals rally, both up more than 10%, while silver and copper gained 5%. Gold is ahead by 1.5% at $4,573 an ounce.
The Nasdaq, S&P 500 and DJIA were all trading nearly flat this morning.
Bitcoin down 1.6% in past 24 hours; ether was down the same way. was down 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 in 2026 by Clear Street’s Owen Lau, outperforming with a decline of just 2%. Gemini (GEMI) was down 6%, Bullish (BLSH) was down 3.8%, and Galaxy Digital (GLXY) was down 3.5%.
Bitcoin miners were particularly hard hit in the early post-Christmas trading session, even those who pivoted their business models from BTC mining to AI infrastructure. IREN (IREN), Cipher Mining (CIFR), Terawulf (WULF) and Marathon Digital (MARA) were among those down 5% or more. A standout performer over the past week on its own AI plans, Hut 8 (HUT) topped the loss list on Friday, down 7.5%.
