Bitcoin fell sharply on first day of December: what is happening with crypto market and what to expect until end of 2025

01.12.2025    15:01

The cryptocurrency market is starting December on a downward note: Bitcoin and leading altcoins are showing a sharp decline amid global market volatility and local shocks in the DeFi sector.

What is happening on December 1

According to CoinMarketCap and other analytical platforms, the total capitalization of the crypto market fell to approximately $2.9–3.0 trillion on December 1, losing about 5% over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin (BTC): trading in the $86,000–87,000 range, with a daily decline of about 4–5%; during the day, the price fell to a low of about $85,500, while the day before it fluctuated around $90,000.

Ethereum (ETH):

remains in the $2,800–2,850 range, with a daily decline of 5–6%, while the coin has already retreated by almost a quarter from its recent local highs in November.

Among the major altcoins, the following are suffering the most:

BNB – around $825–830 (down ~5%),

Solana (SOL) – around $126–127 (down ~7%),

XRP – around $2.0–2.05 (down ~7%).

Speculative memecoins (SHIB, PEPE, BONK, WIF, etc.) are losing 6% to 10–13% per day, which fits the traditional scenario: the riskiest assets fall faster than the market in phases of sharp risk aversion.

Analytical reports from the largest crypto exchanges and specialized media highlight several key factors behind today's pullback.

1. Liquidation of leveraged positions in a thin weekend market

Decreased liquidity over the weekend and at the beginning of the week allowed relatively small orders to push the price of Bitcoin down by several thousand dollars in a matter of minutes.

This triggered a cascade of liquidations of overleveraged long positions on futures platforms — estimates suggest that the volume of forced long closures exceeded $600–700 million in a few hours.

2. Exploit in DeFi and growing nervousness about security

In the decentralized finance sector, there was an incident with the Yearn Finance protocol's yETH pool: the leak was relatively small by market standards, but it came at a “delicate” time and reinforced mistrust of complex income-generating products.

Some participants used this as an excuse to reduce their positions in riskier tokens and DeFi assets.

3. Macrofon: Japan, the Fed, and a general reassessment of risk

At the same time, investors are awaiting the US Fed meeting on December 9–10: futures markets are pricing in a high probability of a rate cut, but uncertainty surrounding the pace of policy easing is keeping nerves on edge.

4. ETF fund flows and profit-taking by large players

After months of active inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs, November saw a wave of net outflows worth billions of dollars, which spurred sales.

On-chain data and derivatives show that large holders (whales) are gradually hedging their risks or reducing their longs, while retail investors entered the market late in the bullish momentum.

Additionally, new regulatory initiatives are weighing on sentiment, in particular Japan's plan to impose a flat 20% tax on cryptocurrency income, which makes the market more “similar” to the traditional one, but at the same time reduces its attractiveness for some speculators.

A separate technical signal: according to CoinDesk, on the monthly Bitcoin chart, the MACD indicator has turned red for the first time in a long time, which in previous cycles was accompanied by either protracted corrections or the formation of a medium-term bearish trend.

What does this mean for the market now?

According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin's dominance in market capitalization remains at around 58-59%, and the “altcoin season” index remains in the “Bitcoin season” zone, meaning that altcoins have been lagging behind BTC on average in recent months.

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