By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
Bitcoin rose above $88,000 even after the Bank of Japan raised interest rates to their highest level in nearly 30 years, a move that should have strengthened the yen and made the carry trade less attractive.
Instead, the currency weakened on concerns that rising rates could endanger the spending plans of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office in October. The yield on 10-year Japanese government bonds touched 2% for the first time since 2006.
Other cryptocurrencies have also gained. Ether added 3.4% in the past 24 hours, although major altcoins including BNB and SOL were up less than 1%. The broader CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) rose 1.3%.
In the background is the US inflation data, released yesterday, colder than expected. The report bolsters the chances that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in the future, a potential boon for risky assets, even though predictive markets still indicate there will be no rate cut next month.
Beyond that, risky assets still face the risk of AI trade unwinding.
“Capital continues to flow aggressively into AI infrastructure, but monetization questions are increasingly difficult to ignore,” write analysts at QCP Capital. “Major players such as Oracle and Iren are increasing their capital expenditures, while AI-related revenues remain relatively stable.”
Valuations of risky assets could fall if revenues do not materialize, analysts warn. Several crypto companies are profiting from AI trading, particularly Bitcoin miners who have started turning to AI infrastructure in multi-billion dollar transactions.
Regulatory developments also support market development.
“The United States is poised to consolidate the regulatory architecture of the GENIUS Act in 2026,” Ira Auerbach, head of Tandem at Offchain Labs and former head of digital assets at Nasdaq, told CoinDesk. “Stablecoin issuers that previously relied on offshore regimes will find significant benefits in bringing their reserves and operations back to U.S. soil.”
Auerbach also said some retirement plan providers are preparing to test target date and balanced funds with 0.5% to 1% crypto exposure, potentially creating stable demand less tied to market cycles.
“It treats digital assets less as a development factor and more as another risk component in long-term portfolio construction, which is how structural demand begins to take shape,” Auerbach added. 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
- December 19: ADRs sponsored by Metaplanet Inc. begin trading over-the-counter in the United States under the symbol MPJPY. They will replace existing, non-sponsored OTC trades under the symbol MTPLF.
- Macro
- December 19, 10 a.m.: December American survey (final) from the University of Michigan. Consumer Confidence Index Est. 53.4; Inflation Expectations Est. 4.1%.
- 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
- Lido DAO votes on a transformative package to move from a pure staking protocol to a diverse DeFi product suite over the next three years. Voting closes on December 19.
- CoW DAO votes to dissolve the Sprinter Solver bond pool and return the 500,000 USDC deposited and 1.5 million COW to the original backers. Voting closes on December 19.
- Arbitrum DAO votes to enable the ArbOS 51 upgrade, introducing a 32 million transaction gas limit, dynamic gas targets, and doubled minimum base fees to improve network scalability. Voting closes on December 19.
- December 19: Avantis will host a discussion on the League of Leverage.
- Unlocks
- December 20: to unlock 6.79% of its circulating supply worth $37.28 million.
- Token Launches
- December 19: ZkPass (ZKP) will be listed on Binance, MEXC, Bybit, BingX and others.
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is up 2.91% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $88,092.82 (24 hours: +0.73%)
- ETH is up 6.82% at $2,969 (24 hours: -3.87%)
- CoinDesk 20 is up 3.33% at 2,707.79 (24h: +1.22%)
- Ether CESR composite staking rate down 1bp to 2.86%
- BTC funding rate is 0.01% (10.95% annualized) on Binance
- The DXY is up 0.23% at 98.65
- Gold futures unchanged at $4,360.50
- Silver futures are up 1.73% at $66.35
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 1.03% at 49,507.21
- Hang Seng closed 0.75% higher at 25,690.53
- The FTSE is down 0.10% at 9,828.28
- The Euro Stoxx 50 is unchanged at 5,745.04
- DJIA closed up 0.14% at 47,951.85
- The S&P 500 closed up 0.79% at 6,774.76
- The Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.38% at 23,006.36
- The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 0.61% at 31,440.85
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed up 1.15% at 3,093.49
- The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield is up 2.9 basis points at 4.145%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.27% at 6,849.00
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.4% at 25,363.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures unchanged at 48,356.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 59.94% (+0.13%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.03347 (1.19%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,031 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $37.57
- Total fees: 2.74 BTC / $237,800
- CME Futures Open Interest: 120,865 BTC
- BTC valued in gold: 20.3 ounces.
- BTC vs. gold market capitalization: 5.9%
Technical analysis
- BTC/USD is currently stuck between support at $84,200 and weekly resistance at $90,500. As the 0.382 Fibonacci level sits below $84,200, current price action holds above it, supported by a clear bullish divergence in the RSI where momentum is increasing despite price consolidation.
- A decisive weekly close above $90,500 would validate this divergence, likely triggering a continuation of the trend towards the 0.236 Fibonacci target at $100,400.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): Closed Thursday at $239.20 (-2.04%), +3.24% to $246.94 in pre-market
- Circle (CRCL): closed at $80.99 (+2.26%), +3.04% at $83.45
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $22.51 (-1.32%), +3.07% to $23.20
- Bull (BLSH): closed at $42.88 (+1.73%), +1.28% at $43.43
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $9.69 (-2.42%), +2.68% to $9.95
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): close at $13.38 (+3.24%), +3.21% to $13.81
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $14.56 (+7.3%), +3.71% at $15.10
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $11.20 (-2.44%), +3.66% at $11.61
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): Closed at $37.49 (+2.68%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $15.21 (+4.61%)
Crypto Cash Companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $158.24 (-1.33%), +3.71% at $164.11
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $17.11 (+1.06%)
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $9.02 (-2.7%), +5.1% to $9.48
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $1.88 (+0.53%)
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.35 (-1.46%)
ETF Feed
Spot BTC ETF
- Daily net flows: -$161.3 million
- Cumulative net flows: $57.55 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.31 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$96.6 million
- Cumulative net flows: $12.54 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~6.15 million
Source: Farside Investors
While you were sleeping
