Bitcoin plunges below $86,000 as crypto weakness worsens

Major cryptocurrencies fell during U.S. morning hours Monday, continuing a now crystal-clear pattern of relative poor performance while American stocks trade.

Trading fairly flat just below $90,000 overnight, bitcoin BTC$86,474.85 plunged to $85,600 by early afternoon Eastern Time (ET), down 3.6% over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin's poor relative performance during U.S. market hours suggests at first glance weak demand from American investors, but perhaps it has something to do with the mechanics of the spot bitcoin ETFs that opened for business in January 2024.

"Since the iShares Bitcoin ETF IBIT began trading, had you only owned it after hours (buy the close, sell the next open), it's up 222%," Bespoke Investment said in an X post. "Had you only owned intraday (buy the open, sell the close), it's down 40.5%."

Crypto stocks also started the week significantly lower with both Strategy (MSTR) and Circle (CRCL) both down about 7%. Coinbase (COIN) fell more than 5% while trading platforms Robinhood (HOOD) and eToro (ETOR) faced smaller declines of about 2%. Brokerage Gemini (GEMI), which soared late last week on approval for adding prediction markets to its offerings, pulled back 10% Monday.

Crypto miners, many closely attached to the data center infrastructure theme that took a hit last week amid artificial intelligence jitters, continued their downward trajectory. CleanSpark (CLSK), Cipher Mining (CIFR), Hut 8 (HUT) and TeraWulf (WULF) all logged over 10% declines.

In comparison, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 only saw modest declines, underscoring the crypto-specific weakness.

Macro news on tap

As the U.S. government continues to ramp up following its long closure, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release employment reports this week for both October and November. The data will be closely watched to help determine whether or not the Federal Reserve continues cutting interest rates in early 2026.

The Bank of Japan, meanwhile, is expected to hike its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nearly one year.

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank are also meeting later this week to discuss monetary policy.

How low can BTC fall

Despite Monday's volatile action, BTC is still trading rangebound above the late November lows of $80,000 and below early December high of $94,000 high.

A check on exchange order book data shows buy orders being concentrated around the $85,000 level on the BTC-USDT trading pair, the most liquid pair, which could arrest the price drop offering at least a short-term support.

As chances for a year-end crypto rally appear are slipping away, investors are reducing their risk, but the selling has remained orderly, according Wintermute OTC trader Jasper De Maere.

"The failure of a clean year-end rally has introduced short-term fragility, but price action so far reflects consolidation and position-cleaning rather than outright risk aversion," he wrote in a Monday note.

"This still looks more like late-year digestion than a structural regime shift."

UPDATE (Dec. 15, 18:15 UTC): Adds order book data and analyst comment.