Crypto markets took another hit on Monday, with Bitcoin dropping below the $87,000 mark and most altcoins plunging amid fears that a bear market may be underway.
As of press time, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $86,300, down roughly 3% over the last 24 hours. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization is also down 2.8% at $3.04 trillion.
Ethereum (ETH) fell 3.4% to $2,980, while BNB slid 3.1% to $858 and XRP dropped 3.5% to $1.93. Solana (SOL) declined 3.3% to $126. Among the top 10 altcoins by market capitalization, only TRON (TRX) posted gains, up 1.2% on the day.
Not Full Bear Market Capitulation Yet
Glassnode’s senior researcher CryptoVizArt noted in an X post on Dec. 13 that the current $80K-$90K consolidation range is generating a “magnitude of stress comparable to late Jan 2022, with Relative Unrealized Loss approaching ~10% of market cap.”
They added that the current dynamic places the market in a “regime where liquidity is constrained, and sensitivity to macro shocks is elevated, yet still below the levels typically associated with full bear-market capitulation.”
Meanwhile, analysts at 10x Research say there is “little doubt that Bitcoin has entered a bear market,” adding that “on-chain metrics, capital flows, and market structure all point to the early stages of a broader downturn.”
Big Movers and Liquidations
Looking at the top-100 assets by market cap, TRON (TRX) led gainers with a 1.2% increase, while Zcash (ZEC) rose 1.6%. On the downside, Midnight (NIGHT) fell 10%, and Aster (ASTER) dropped 7.6%.
Crypto traders suffered approximately $470 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, according to Coinglass data. Long positions accounted for $384 million, while shorts totaled $83.5 million.
Bitcoin liquidations reached $153 million, followed by Ethereum at $130 million. Liquidations across other altcoins amounted to roughly $46 million.
ETFs and Macro Conditions
Last week, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded weekly net inflows of $286.6 million, bringing cumulative inflows to $57.9 billion and total net assets to $118.3 billion, per data from SoSoValue.
Meanwhile, spot Ethereum ETFs saw weekly net inflows of $208.9 million, lifting cumulative inflows to $13.1 billion. Total net assets across Ethereum ETFs stood at $19.4 billion, with $9.3 billion in value traded during the week.
On the macro side, U.S. Treasury yields slipped on Monday as traders wait for key economic reports this week on jobs, inflation, and retail sales, CNBC reports. The 10-year yield dropped slightly to 4.157%, the 2-year to 3.497%, and the 30-year to 4.825%.
Traders focused on macro trends are keeping an eye on Japan, where the Bank of Japan is widely expected to hike interest rates at Thursday’s policy meeting.
