Daily Crypto Signals: Bitcoin Retreats to $90K, XRP Eyes $2.65 Breakout Amid Institutional Surge
Bitcoin faces headwinds below $92K as economic uncertainty and weak ETF flows dampen sentiment, while pro traders increase downside
Quick overview
- Bitcoin struggles to maintain momentum below $92K due to economic uncertainty and weak ETF flows, leading to increased downside protection costs among pro traders.
- XRP has surged 15.5% from recent lows, driven by $245 million in institutional investments, with technical indicators suggesting a potential rally to $2.65.
- Coinbase is re-entering the Indian market after a two-year hiatus, preparing to offer local fiat on-ramps by 2026.
- BlackRock is seeking SEC approval for a staked Ether ETF, which could be a significant development in the US cryptocurrency landscape.
Bitcoin BTC/USD faces headwinds below $92K as economic uncertainty and weak ETF flows dampen sentiment, while pro traders increase downside protection costs. Meanwhile, XRP XRP/USD climbs 15.5% from recent lows as institutional investors pour $245 million into XRP products, with technical patterns suggesting a potential 27% rally to $2.65.
Crypto Market Developments
This week, the cryptocurrency market saw mixed signals as changes in regulations, the growth of exchanges, and the movement of networks changed the scene. BlackRock asked the SEC for permission to create a staked Ether ETF. If approved, this might be one of the first staked cryptocurrency offerings in the US. The big asset management company that runs the biggest spot Bitcoin ETF filed a Form S-1 registration statement for its iShares Staked Ethereum Trust exchange-traded fund. It plans to launch shares on Nasdaq under the ticker ETHB. In October, Grayscale added staking features to its ETH trusts. Canary Capital and Bitwise also filed for other staking products. However, the SEC has been very careful about approving crypto staking funds since it first approved spot Ether ETFs in May 2024.
Coinbase made a planned comeback to India after being gone for two years. It started accepting app registrations again as it gets ready to add local fiat on-ramps in 2026. At India Blockchain Week, John O’Loghlen, the exchange’s APAC director, said that consumers can now trade crypto for crypto right away. This is a deliberate comeback after Coinbase shut down in September 2023 after a rough start. The exchange removed millions of Indian consumers from abroad businesses to make sure it was following the rules. Its March FIU registration now lets it offer crypto trading services in India. In network infrastructure news, ZKsync said that ZKsync Lite, Ethereum’s first zero-knowledge rollup, will be shut down in 2026 as scheduled. It was a groundbreaking proof-of-concept that confirmed important ideas for production ZK systems.
Bitcoin Holds Above $90,000
Bitcoin (BTC) hit a wall around $92,250 on Monday, which caused a $2,650 drop that brought prices down to $90,000 despite bad news in the economy. The cryptocurrency has dropped 28% from its all-time high in October. The monthly futures premium compared to spot prices has stayed below the neutral 5% level for two weeks in a row, showing that there isn’t much demand for bullish leverage. The 43-day funding shutdown that ended in November delayed US government employment and inflation data, which has made the economy less clear. In November, 71,321 people lost their jobs in the private sector, and in October, 15% of home purchase agreements were canceled.
The forced sale of $92 million in bullish leveraged Bitcoin futures sped up the drop, even though the S&P 500 was just 1.2% below its all-time high of 6,920. This showed that Bitcoin was doing worse than other markets and that crypto traders were avoiding risk. Deribit has derivatives data that shows whales and market makers want a 13% premium to sell Bitcoin put options. This is a typical cost structure for bearish markets.
Stablecoins have also traded below parity with the Chinese yuan, and Tether is trading at a discount to the official USD rate, which shows that there is a lot of demand to leave the cryptocurrency markets. The lack of inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs over the past few weeks has made people less optimistic. Analysts say that Bitcoin’s path to $100,000 depends more on better conditions in the US job market and real estate market than on the Federal Reserve’s decision about monetary policy.
XRP Looking to Break Past $2.65?
XRP (XRP) showed strength by rising 3% in 24 hours and 15.5% from its low on November 21, reaching $2.10 on Monday as demand from institutions skyrocketed. During the week of December 5, investment products that follow XRP saw $245 million in new money come in. This brought the total for the year to $3.1 billion, which is much higher than the $608 million that came in during all of 2024.
James Butterfill, the head of research at CoinShares, said that investors in exchange-traded products think that negative sentiment may have hit rock bottom. US spot XRP ETFs kept their perfect record going with 15 days in a row of positive flows. On Friday alone, they added $10.23 million, bringing total inflows close to $900 million and total assets under management to $861.3 million, locking up over 400 million XRP tokens in these investment products.
Technical indicators and derivatives measures support the idea that XRP will go up in the short term. The daily funding rate changed from negative to positive at 0.0189%, which means that most traders are going long. On Binance, the ratio of long to short accounts is currently 72% in favor of bullish holdings. Beacon, a trading platform, said that Hyperliquid traders are in the same boat, with 72% of them having long bets worth $94.5 million and 28% having short ones.
XRP is trading above a symmetrical triangle pattern on the four-hour chart. Analysts say that if it breaks above the upper trendline at $2.15, it could start a 27% rally to a goal of $2.65. Some traders think the price will first increase 16% toward $2.40, while others say that a bullish daily close above $2.30 would indicate a break of structure and might lead to $2.58, as long as support at $2 stays strong.
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