Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin Slips Back Toward Danger Zone Ahead of Fed Decision

Markets Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin Slips Back Toward Danger Zone Ahead of Fed Decision Bitcoin surrendered gains from earlier in the week, fell back toward $90,000 as traders braced for Wednesday’s Federal Reserve rate decision. By Oliver Knight , Omkar Godbole | Edited by Sheldon Reback Dec 9, 2025, 11:30 a.m. Bitcoin slips back into danger zone ahead of Fed rate decision (Gaertringen/Pixabay modified by CoinDesk) What to know : A 25 basis-point interest-rate cut has been priced in for weeks, and risk assets could drop on the news if no fresh catalysts emerge. Tokens like HYPE, STRK, QNT and KAS fell 6%–9% in 24 hours CoinMarketCap’s altcoin-season index sits at a cycle low of 18/100. Bitcoin is down 20% over 90 days and more than half of the top-100 tokens have fallen at least 40%. FET and TIA are among the worst performers while ZEC, DASH, BNB and BCH stand out as rare stabilizers. The crypto market fell Tuesday, losing early week momentum and eroding gains. Bitcoin BTC $ 90,281.95 currently trades at $90,150, down from Monday's high of $92,350. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) has lost 2.1% in 24 hours with all members declining. The price action mirrors last week's performance when bitcoin rallied from $86,300 to $93,200 between Sunday and Tuesday before dropping back to $88,000 in the latter half of the week. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This week, the difference is Wednesday's Federal Reserve interest-rate decision, with the market overwhelmingly predicting a 25 basis-point cut. Reductions are generally perceived as bullish for risk assets like cryptocurrencies because the dollar becomes less valuable to hold. But the probability of a rate cut has been high for weeks, meaning that eventuality is likely to be priced in already. If that's the case, risk assets could sell-off on the news because it would mean there are no more bullish catalysts for the rest of the year. Derivatives positioning The market shows no signs of pre-Fed jitters with BTC and ETH 30-day implied volatility indexes, BVIV and EVIV, holding steady. On Deribit, activity is seen in the June expiry puts at strikes as low as $20,000 and calls above $200,000. These are mostly likely bullish volatility plays and not price directional trades. Overall, BTC and ETH puts remain pricier than calls, with block flows featuring risk reversals and put diagonal spreads in bitcoin. In ETH's case, flows included call spreads and risk reversals. As for futures, most major tokens, including BTC and ETH, have seen a decline in open interest (OI). In BCH's case the drop was 8%. ZEC's OI has risen by 16% to 2.30 million ZEC, coming close to the record 2.32 million ZEC on Dec. 4. Token talk The altcoin market continues to recess, with several tokens underperforming bitcoin as investor appetite for speculative assets plunges to cycle lows. HYPE lost 8.6% in 24 hours while STRK, QNT and KAS are down 5.7%-6.3%. CoinMarketCap's "altcoin season" indicator is also resting at cycle lows of 18/100, a far cry from Sept. 20, when it topped 78/100. Over the past 90 days bitcoin has dropped by around 20%. Still, that's dwarfed by the altcoin sector, with more than half of the top-100 tokens by market cap sliding in excess of 40%. The worst-performing tokens include AI-focused FET, which is still reeling from a public spat with Ocean Protocol and accusations of token sales, and TIA $ 0.5787 , which has tumbled 67% in 90 days following a round of layoffs and a lack of any onchain activity. A handful of tokens have bucked the bearish trend, notably privacy coins zcash ZEC $ 410.73 and dash DASH $ 47.67 , and a deserved mention goes to BNB and BCH $ 573.80 , which have stayed relatively flat despite the broader market weakness. Crypto Markets Today Derivatives Markets More For You Protocol Research: GoPlus Security By CoinDesk Research Nov 14, 2025 Commissioned by GoPlus What to know : As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M. GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month. Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B. View Full Report More For You Plume Secures ADGM Commercial License, Eyes Middle East RWA Expansion By Omkar Godbole , AI Boost | Edited by Oliver Knight 31 minutes ago Plume Network has received a commercial license from the Abu Dhabi Global Market, allowing expansion into the Middle East. What to know : Plume Network has received a commercial license from the Abu Dhabi Global Market, allowing expansion into the Middle East. The license enables Plume to scale real-world asset origination and distribution across the Middle East, Africa, and emerging markets. Plume plans to establish a permanent office in Abu Dhabi by the end of the year, with commercial announcements expected in early 2026. 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