The cryptocurrency market extended a more than a month-long retreat in Thursday trading, just as stocks surrendered the gains they had logged earlier in the day.
Market bellwether Bitcoin dropped more than 4% to below $87,000 for the first time since April, as the market struggled to find new buyers and the momentum that had supported prices earlier in the year evaporated. The pullback comes after weeks of unwinding among fast-moving traders and lingering positioning from October’s record run-up, which have left the market more vulnerable to selling pressure and sharp swings.
“Crypto is suffering from heavy selling by whales who follow the four-year cycle narrative, and this is typically the point in that cycle where prices fall,” said James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares. “While we don’t subscribe to this view from a fundamentals perspective, it has become somewhat self-fulfilling, with large holders selling more than US$20 billion since September.”
Stocks had surged on a fresh wave of AI exuberance following positive results from Nvidia, only to see those gains evaporate. Concerns about lofty artificial-intelligence valuations and doubts over the Federal Reserve’s ability to cut rates in December has led to volatility on Wall Street. Crypto remains trapped in a self-contained purge of leverage and fading retail demand — a cross-asset split that has deepened since early October.
Bitcoin’s latest slide can’t be separated from October’s violent liquidation cascade, when more than $19 billion in leveraged positions were forced out in a single session. That shock broke momentum, and hollowed out liquidity across major venues. Order books never fully rebuilt, leaving prices hypersensitive to modest flows — a fragility that continues to define every downdraft.
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