Bitcoin BTC$92,188.62 It reversed an overnight rally to $94,000 and fell to $92,000 during U.S. time on Thursday, continuing to move in a volatile range after initially falling below its early-week high.
Ethereum Ether Ethereum$3,124.99 The stock was down just 0.7% on the day and remained relatively steady, although it swung above $3,100 in the afternoon. Among altcoins, XRP$2.0989Hedera (HBAR), BCH$573.79 Privacy-focused Zcash ZEC$358.15 led the decline, falling 4% to 5%, while the market-wide CoinDesk 20 index fell 2%.
Unstable trading continues
Despite the decline, BTC remains well above the support level around $85,000 set earlier this week, suggesting the market may be settling into a holding pattern as liquidity fades towards the end of the year, Paul Howard, senior director at trading firm Wincent, said in a note.
“We continue to see crypto prices as highly correlated with global macroeconomic events,” said Paul Howard, senior director at Wincent. “December is typically an illiquid month, but we can see a floor cap around $85,000 over the past seven days.”
Barring any major new macro headlines, Howard expects more range trading between $85,000 and $95,000 for the rest of the month. “Altcoins typically perform well in environments with low liquidity and high volatility, but they can outperform altcoins to some extent,” he added.
The world’s attention focuses on Japan
On the macro side, markets enter December with an eye on the US Federal Reserve and, more importantly, the Bank of Japan (BOJ).
Mark Connors, founder and chief macro strategist at Bitcoin investment advisory Risk Dimension, said the Bank of Japan’s interest rate decision was a “key event” this month that would determine the future of the yen carry trade, a strategy in which investors borrow in yen to buy high-yield assets.
If the Bank of Japan leaves interest rates unchanged, as Connors predicts, demand for risky assets could reignite, giving stocks, Bitcoin and gold a tailwind.
