Cryptocurrency prices began December by continuing the ongoing, widespread selloff that marked October and November.
Bitcoin, the most popular crypto, fell by as much as 6% to under $86,000 in early Asia trading Monday (Dec. 1), Bloomberg News reported, citing its in-house data. Ether slid more than 7% to roughly $2,800, with other tokens following similar downward paths.
As the report notes, the crypto market has been shaky following a weeks-long selloff that started in October with the erasure of around $19 billion from the market, only days after bitcoin climbed to a record $126,251.
Bitcoin lost 16.7% of its value last month, but began recovering last week to climb beyond $90,000. Now, Bloomberg added, traders are steeling themselves for sharper declines.
“It’s a risk off start to December,” said Sean McNulty, APAC derivatives trading lead at FalconX.
“The biggest concern is the meager inflows into Bitcoin exchange traded funds and absence of dip buyers. We expect the structural headwinds to continue this month. We are watching $80,000 on Bitcoin as the next key support level.”
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The report adds that investors are also mulling over comments from Strategy CEO Phong Le, who said on a podcast last week that the company, noted for its large stores of bitcoin, could sell the token if it saw a downturn in its mNAV — a ratio of enterprise value to bitcoin holdings.
“We can sell Bitcoin and we would sell Bitcoin if we needed to fund our dividend payments below 1x mNAV,” he said, adding that this would be a last resort. Strategy, which has amassed $56 billion in bitcoin, has seen its mNAV fall to 1.19, according to its website.
The CEO’s comments came amid reports that companies which had once built up large crypto treasuries had begun unloading their holdings.
In a related development S&P Global Ratings last week downgraded its assessment of USDT, the largest stablecoin. The agency moved its view of USDT’s ability to keep its U.S. dollar peg from “constrained” to “weak,” its lowest rating.
Against this backdrop, PYMNTS last week examined the use of cryptocurrency as a retail payment tool.
“Most retailers treat crypto not as a headline opportunity but as a long-tail enhancement. They don’t expect crypto spending to dominate,” that report said.
“They don’t build marketing campaigns around it. Instead, crypto acceptance functions like PayPal or Klarna once did in their early days: an incremental option that might convert a few extra shoppers, especially those buying internationally or operating outside traditional banking rails.”
