Bitcoin Price Slips Below $86,000 and XRP Falls. What Can Spark a Crypto Rebound. — Barrons.com
By Callum Keown and Nate WolfBitcoin prices slumped Monday as investors veered away from risky cryptocurrency assets to start the final full trading week of 2025.Bitcoin fell to $85,774, having trading just under $90,000 overnight, according to CoinDesk. The world's largest cryptocurrency has fallen 3.2% over the last 24 hours. It's 32% off its record high of more than $126,000 reached in early October.Popular altcoin XRP was down 4.8% at $1.89, while the second-largest crypto, Ethereum, dropped 4.7% to $2,935.Stocks tied to the crypto market also fell Monday. The exchanges Coinbase Global and Robinhood Markets were down 5.3% and 1.8%, respectively. Strategy, the world's largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, dropped 7.6%.A flurry of macroeconomic data this week could be a catalyst for a crypto comeback, particularly if jobs reports on Tuesday and inflation data on Thursday strengthen the case for another Federal Reserve rate cut in January. Risky assets like crypto tend to respond favorably to lower rates.But markets are currently only pricing in a 24.4% probability of a quarter-point cut next month, according to the CME FedWatch tool. That's down from 27% earlier on Monday, which could explain some of the midday pullback in digital asset markets.Weekend trading also provided some bearish signals for crypto traders. While weekend volume is often thin, it can sometimes be a leading indicator of risk sentiment in the week ahead."Bitcoin is down a couple of percent following the weekend trade, implying a deepening risk-off sentiment," Capital.com analyst Kyle Rodda said late Sunday.December tends to be a good month for Bitcoin, which has risen an average of 9.2% in the final month of the year since 2014, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Something needs to change — and quickly — if it's to live up to history. About halfway through the month, Bitcoin is down around 6%.Separately, crypto group Tether submitted a bid for Italian soccer club Juventus on Friday. The stablecoin issuer proposed to buy majority shareholder Exor's 65.4% stake in the club.Exor rejected the proposal, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Juventus, which is publicly listed, jumped more than 12% in European morning trading.Write to Callum Keown at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.