After a challenging couple of months, the cryptocurrency community welcomed December, but its first day brought significant volatility before the market structure finally improved.
Before delving into the details of the December 1 crash, it’s important to recap the preceding events. Bitcoin began its substantial correction after reaching its all-time high in early October. The situation worsened in November, when bears exerted considerable control over the market for weeks, driving Bitcoin to a seven-month low of under $81,000 on November 21.
The asset experienced a bounce, flirting with the $90,000 level, and ultimately reclaimed it by the end of the month. However, as previously mentioned, December 1 saw another immediate and sharp decline, with Bitcoin's price plummeting from approximately $91,000 to below $84,000 within hours.
Despite this sharp drop, the bulls were prepared and prevented another retest of the $80,000 support level. In fact, Bitcoin rebounded almost as quickly and even surged to $94,000 on a couple of occasions during the business week.
However, the overall market weakness proved to be too significant at the time, and BTC faced rejection at that level. It has since lost over three thousand dollars and is currently trading around $90,000, resulting in a slight weekly loss.
The community's attention is now focused on next week's FOMC meeting, the last for the year, where the US Federal Reserve is expected to make its highly anticipated interest rate decision. The probability of another 25 basis points reduction stands at over 90% on Polymarket, which could be a positive development for Bitcoin and other riskier assets.
Despite this potential catalyst, the weekly performance has been challenging for most altcoins. XRP has seen a decrease of over 6%, HYPE has plunged by 12%, and ZEC has lost its momentum, dumping by almost 20%.
Market Data
Market Cap: $3.180T | 24H Vol: $116B | BTC Dominance: 57.1%
BTC: $90,400 (-1.2%) | ETH: $3,090 (+2%) | XRP: $2.06 (-6.2%)
This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss
Vanguard ‘Finally Caves’ Allowing Crypto ETF Trading For 50 Million Clients. After years of criticism or indifference towards the cryptocurrency industry, Vanguard, the world's second-largest asset manager, has decided to permit its 50 million clients to trade exchange-traded and mutual funds tracking Bitcoin and select other cryptocurrencies on its platform.
Fusaka Hard Fork Goes Live On Ethereum with Massive Data Availability Boost. Another significant development in the cryptocurrency space this past week was the successful activation of Ethereum’s Fusaka Hard Fork. This update, which contributed to an immediate price increase for Ethereum, is designed to enhance data availability and scalability across the network.
Ripple (XRP) ETFs Reign Supreme as Total Inflows Surpass Bitcoin, Ethereum Funds. In the short weeks since US investors gained access to spot XRP ETFs, the initial performance has been remarkably strong. These financial vehicles have maintained a positive trend for 14 consecutive trading days and have outperformed their Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana counterparts during this period.
MicroStrategy Boosts Its Bitcoin Stack to 650,000 BTC as Price Falls Below $85K. In addition to announcing another Bitcoin purchase that brought its total holdings to 650,000 units, MicroStrategy also established a USD Reserve of $1.44 billion. This reserve is intended to support the payment of dividends on its preferred stock and interest on its outstanding indebtedness.
CZ vs. Peter Schiff: Who Dominated the Bitcoin vs. Gold Battle in Dubai?. Anticipation was high for the gold-versus-bitcoin debate that took place during Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai, where Peter Schiff and Changpeng Zhao vigorously defended their respective investment assets. Numerous online comments and reactions to videos of the event suggest that CZ emerged as the victor in the debate.
Tom Lee Forecasts Ethereum Rally to $20K on 2026 Tokenization Boom. Following several multi-million-dollar Ethereum purchases in recent weeks, Tom Lee has reinforced his optimistic price predictions for the asset, forecasting that it could reach $20,000 next year, driven by a tokenization boom.
Charts
This week's analysis includes charts for Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Hyperliquid. For a complete price analysis, please refer to the detailed report.