Bitcoin reverses early gains, drops below $88,000 as Nasdaq futures wilt
Bitcoin reversed Asian session gains, dropping below $88,000 and affecting major altcoins.
Bitcoin reverses early gains, drops below $88,000 as Nasdaq futures wilt
Bitcoin reversed Asian session gains, dropping below $88,000 and affecting major altcoins.
Updated Dec 29, 2025, 11:52 a.m. Published Dec 29, 2025, 10:35 a.m.
Bitcoin BTC$87,560.66 reversed gains made earlier in Asia, puncturing nascent recovery rallies in major alternative cryptocurrencies.
The leading cryptocurrency by market value dropped below $88,000, having peeped above $90,000, CoinDesk data show. Major altcoins including XRP$1.8710, ether ETH$2,933.77, solana SOL$123.56 and DOGE$0.1242 also retraced their adances. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) pulled back to 2,726, roughly where it was in early Asia before it popped to 2,789.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
The decline is consistent with weakness in stock index futures. As of writing, futures tied to Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index traded 0.5% lower on the day, pointing to a cautious start to trading.
BTC and the Nasdaq share a strong positive correlation that becomes more pronounced during Nasdaq downtrends, according to Wintermute.
The pullback led traders to slightly scale back their leveraged bets. Data from Coinglass shows that cumulative open interest in futures listed worldwide declined to around 533,000 BTC from the 540,000 BTC seen earlier today. Open interest had popped from 524,000 BTC as the bitcoin price rose to $90,000.
The cryptocurrency has recently tended to underperform during U.S. hours, according to Laser Digital.
"An interesting trend to take note of has been the distinct underperformance during the US timezone. (both BTC, ETH down 3%+ over US hours [last week] offset by strength during Asian hours) driven most likely by selling pressure coming from the year-end tax harvesting flow as crypto has been a large underperformer among global assets this year," analysts at Laser Digital wrote in an analysis note Monday.
John Glover, an Elliott wave expert and chief investment officer at crypto lender Ledn, signaled a bullish outlook.
"The Bitcoin price chart looks very promising for higher prices in the future, but less certainty in the near term. I continue to look for the market to trade sideways to slightly lower in the coming weeks/months, and look to add to longs between $71k and $84k," Glover told CoinDesk in an email.
More For You
State of the Blockchain 2025
Dec 19, 2025
L1 tokens broadly underperformed in 2025 despite a backdrop of regulatory and institutional wins. Explore the key trends defining ten major blockchains below.
What to know:
2025 was defined by a stark divergence: structural progress collided with stagnant price action. Institutional milestones were reached and TVL increased across most major ecosystems, yet the majority of large-cap Layer-1 tokens finished the year with negative or flat returns.
This report analyzes the structural decoupling between network usage and token performance. We examine 10 major blockchain ecosystems, exploring protocol versus application revenues, key ecosystem narratives, mechanics driving institutional adoption, and the trends to watch as we head into 2026.
More For You
Bitmine's ether stash tops 4.1 million tokens as crypto and cash holdings reach $13.2 billion
34 minutes ago
Tom Lee's publicly traded miner and treasury firm said it now controls more than 3% of ether’s total supply and is accelerating staking plans.
What to know:
- Bitmine Immersion (BMNR) now holds 4.11 million ether, equal to about 3.4% of total supply, alongside $1 billion in cash.
- The company said it added more than 44,000 ETH in the past week and has staked over 408,000 tokens of the cryptocurrency.