The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is down 1% on Dec. 17 and crypto">trading right around $86,000 as weakness in the crypto market continues.
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BTC had rallied as high as $88,000 early in the trading session, but quickly gave up those gains as equities also turned negative for a fourth consecutive day. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization went from being up 3% to down 1% in a matter of minutes as volatility persists.
The latest decline in Bitcoin and other crypto such as Ethereum (ETH) coincides with sharp losses for artificial intelligence-related (AI) stocks, with Nvidia (NVDA) and Oracle (ORCL) suffering 3% and 6% declines, respectively.
The Slide in Cryptocurrencies
The sudden price swings triggered nearly $200 million in liquidations across crypto derivatives markets on Dec. 17. The volatile action hit $72 million in long positions, seeking to profit from rising prices, and $121 million in short bets, according to market data.
Bitcoin continues to struggle after hitting an all-time high of $126,300 in early October. The price of BTC has fallen more than 30% in the last two months as increasingly risk-averse investors continue to pull money from Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and move into safer assets such as bonds and cash.
The current situation is unusual as December is typically one of the best months of the year for crypto, with Bitcoin averaging a 9% gain during the final month of the year.
Is Bitcoin a Buy?
Most analysts don’t offer ratings or price targets on Bitcoin. So instead, we’ll look at the three-month performance of BTC. As one can see in the chart below, the price of Bitcoin has fallen 23.32% in the last 12 weeks.
