Bitcoin trades around $90,152, essentially flat on the day, after a 26% pullback from October’s $126K peak that 24/7 Wall St. frames as a consolidation phase rather than a breakdown. Macro headwinds, including looming Bank of Japan rate hikes that threaten global carry trades, are keeping upside in check even as long‑term narratives focus on ETF demand, the 2028 halving, and 2030 price targets between $120K and $1M.
Institutional adoption debate intensifies despite near-term BTC softness
Articles from CoinDesk and 24/7 Wall St. highlight that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF assets have slid from an October peak of $169B to about $120B amid recent outflows and volatility, while Brazil’s largest asset manager now recommends up to a 3% BTC allocation as a hedge. Strategy (MSTR), the flagship public BTC-treasury proxy, has held its Nasdaq‑100 spot but trades as a high‑beta play on Bitcoin as index providers like MSCI weigh excluding digital‑asset treasury companies from benchmarks.
Ethereum and Solana edge higher but lag narrative flow
Ethereum trades near $3,108, up about 0.75%, as investors look ahead to the Fusaka network upgrade and continued institutional positioning after earlier ETF-driven volatility. Solana is up 0.43% around $132.89, but recent reports of heavy drawdowns in Solana‑exposed treasury stocks and broad altcoin weakness underline that SOL remains highly sensitive to shifts in market risk appetite.
Macro and policy overhangs weigh on crypto risk-taking
CoinDesk flags the Bank of Japan’s plan to lift rates to a 30‑year high as another threat to Bitcoin, since a stronger yen can unwind leveraged carry trades that have fed into crypto. In Washington, progress on a U.S. crypto market‑structure bill may slip into January, extending regulatory uncertainty just as markets digest hawkish central‑bank signaling and a tech‑led equity pullback that has reinforced a cautious stance toward high‑beta digital assets.
Bitcoin slips below recent highs as macro jitters persist
Bitcoin trades near $90,094, modestly lower on the day after a sharper Friday drop below $90K that CoinDesk tied to AI-bubble worries in tech stocks and hawkish signals from the Bank of Japan. Analysts warn that rising Japanese yields and a stronger yen could pressure leveraged crypto carry trades even as the Fed turns more dovish.
Ethereum edges higher amid renewed ETF inflows
Ether is around $3,108, up roughly 0.7%, with AMBCrypto flagging a sharp swing back to net ETF buying—over $42M of inflows on December 11—after prior outflows. If these institutional flows persist, commentators see scope for renewed upside despite the broader risk-off backdrop.
XRP holds the line at $2 as institutional rails deepen
XRP trades near $2.03, slightly higher and tightly range-bound despite nearly $1B of cumulative spot ETF inflows and fresh capital rotation reported this week. TS2.Tech and other outlets highlight Ripple’s conditional U.S. OCC approval for a national trust bank and Hex Trust’s launch of wrapped XRP for DeFi as key structural bullish drivers that the market has yet to fully price.
Solana steady despite broader altcoin softness
Solana changes hands around $133, up about 0.7% on the day but still nursing losses after this week’s BTC-led selloff that hit Solana-linked ‘digital asset treasury’ stocks. News flow has been quieter versus XRP and ETH, and traders frame SOL’s move more as a beta reaction to Bitcoin than a story driven by chain-specific catalysts today.
Strategy (MSTR) remains the leveraged Bitcoin proxy to watch
Strategy Inc., the Bitcoin-hoarding ex-MicroStrategy, closed Friday near $176.60, down 3.7%, as Reuters and TS2.Tech note its extreme earnings and price sensitivity to BTC due to fair-value accounting and heavy leverage. The stock narrowly retained its Nasdaq-100 membership even as MSCI weighs excluding ‘digital asset treasury’ companies from its indices in January, leaving the name highly exposed to both Bitcoin volatility and index-eligibility headlines.
U.S. crypto policy: market-structure bill slips toward January
CoinDesk reports that Senate negotiations on a comprehensive U.S. crypto market-structure bill are likely to slide into January as lawmakers and industry continue to debate key provisions. The delay prolongs regulatory uncertainty for exchanges and token issuers, but also keeps the door open for a more industry-aligned compromise rather than a rushed year-end deal.