Not waiting for its usual plunge time of Sunday evening, bitcoin is getting an earlier start to the weekend this holiday season, continuing an overnight decline and dropping below $90,000 in early U.S. trading hours.
This movement reverses much of the bounce from last Sunday night’s panic-driven drop that took bitcoin down to $84,000.
Ethereum’s ether is 2% lower along with BTC, while other leading altcoins like Solana , , and have seen declines of more than 4% each.
This activity could support previous analyst predictions that, rather than a swift recovery, the crypto market may experience further consolidation as the year-end approaches.
As a result, crypto-related equities are significantly down across the board, with companies like Strategy (MSTR), Galaxy Digital (GLXY), CleanSpark (CLSK), and American Bitcoin (ABTC) witnessing declines of 4%-7%.
According to Velo data, the most bearish times of day in the last six months have been the hour prior to the US market opening and the first hour of US trading.
Friday has consistently been the most bearish day of the week during the same period.
Anecdotal inflation data ignites optimism
The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment numbers released at 10 am ET might ease the bearish sentiment for the rest of the day.
Though highly anecdotal and likely influenced by respondents’ political affiliations, the December 1-Year Consumer Inflation Expectation decreased to 4.1% from 4.5% previously and the 5-Year Consumer Inflation Expectation dropped to 3.2% from 3.4% previously.
With the scarcity of official economic data lately, these private surveys have gained increased importance, and bitcoin managed a slight rebound back to the $91,000 level in the moments after the report.
