Bitcoin Drops Below $80,000 Ignoring Asian Tech Stock Rally

Bitcoin fell below $80,000 again on Tuesday: since midnight UTC, it has decreased by 0.4% to around $79,700, and Ether lost 0.5%. The crypto market did not follow the rally of Asian tech stocks – Kospi rose by 3.1%. The DeFi Index (DFX) decreased by 1.8%, more than other CoinDesk indices. Futures on US indices slightly declined, and oil is approaching $102 per barrel. The Fed begins a two-day meeting, with a decision on Wednesday; CME FedWatch shows about a 90% probability of maintaining the rate. Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $110 million on Monday, breaking a two-day outflow.

Futures volume increased by 18% to $152 billion, open interest by 0.95%, and liquidations slowed by 13% to $133 million. The taker ratio is 49.54% to 50.46%. BTC and ETH fell by approximately 1.1% over the day, SOL by 1.91%, while open interest for them rose by 1%, 0.8%, and 3.6%. Funding remained positive for all three. In SOXL, open interest fell by 7.4% with an 8% price increase – growth was driven by short covering; SKHYNIX funding decreased to 0.0221% from 0.0516%. Oil funding deepened to −0.0115%. The most traded Bitcoin option is the $72,000 put expiring on December 25; 25-delta put-call skew is positive across all terms.

Dash rose by 1.8%, Zcash by 0.5% following Sean Bow's proposal to stop directing 8% of new coins to the grant fund. Aave lost 3.6%, SKY 3.9%. RENDER and GRT lost over 2%, Celestia, Starknet, and pump fun about 3%; Celestia is expecting an unlock of 5.58 million TIA on Saturday. The Altcoin Season Index rose to 57 out of 100 from 53.