NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 10:34 ET — Regular session
- Bitcoin slipped 0.3% to about $87,647 after briefly topping $90,000 earlier in the session.
- Strategy disclosed a $108.8 million bitcoin purchase funded by share sales, in a filing. 1
- Traders are watching U.S. Federal Reserve minutes on Tuesday for clues on the 2026 rate path. 2
Bitcoin edged lower in morning New York trading on Monday, slipping 0.3% to $87,647 after briefly climbing above $90,000 earlier in the session.
The muted move matters because thin year-end liquidity can exaggerate swings, with many desks operating with reduced staffing and fewer catalysts before the calendar turns. Reuters reported U.S. markets are heading into a holiday-shortened week, with trading volumes expected to be light. 3
Bitcoin is also sitting near a widely watched round-number level at $90,000, leaving traders sensitive to any shift in risk appetite tied to interest rates and macro headlines. 2
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, fell 0.4% to $2,937.92.
Crypto-linked U.S. stocks were mixed. Coinbase Global shares fell 0.6%, while bitcoin proxy Strategy Inc was down 0.2% and miner Marathon Digital slipped 0.1%.
Strategy said it bought 1,229 bitcoin between December 22 and December 28 for $108.8 million, paying an average of about $88,568 per coin including fees, according to an SEC filing. 1
The company said it funded the purchases using proceeds from sales of its Class A common stock under its at-the-market (ATM) program — a facility that lets a company sell shares into the open market from time to time. The filing showed Strategy sold 663,450 shares for $108.8 million in net proceeds and had about $11.7 billion still available for issuance and sale under that common-stock ATM. 1
Broader risk sentiment was cautious, with Wall Street’s main indexes opening lower as heavyweight technology stocks gave back some of last week’s gains, Reuters reported. 3
Still, investors have largely kept the focus on the outlook for U.S. interest rates. Fidelity International multi-asset portfolio manager Becky Qin said, “We’re not seeing runaway inflation risk,” adding she still sees room for the Fed to cut. 2
The next near-term macro test is the release of minutes from the Fed’s latest meeting on Tuesday, after the central bank cut rates this month and markets continued to price further easing in 2026, Reuters reported. 2
For crypto traders, the intraday range underscored the tug-of-war near key levels: bitcoin’s session high was $90,247 and the low was $86,780.
Bitcoin remains far below its October peak, when it hit a record above $126,000, a drawdown that has kept hedge demand and positioning sensitive to macro swings. 4
