Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin rallies on Japan rate hike as futures traders pile in

Markets Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin rallies on Japan rate hike as futures traders pile in BTC rose to $88,000 after the Bank of Japan raised interest rates. The increase, seen as a potential risk-off trigger, failed to spark a flight into the yen. By Oliver Knight | Edited by Sheldon Reback Updated Dec 19, 2025, 11:55 a.m. Published Dec 19, 2025, 11:30 a.m. Japan's rate increase failed to deter bitcoin investors (Shutterstock modified by CoinDesk) What to know : BTC rose to $88,000 from $85,200 in five hours after the BOJ hiked rates The increase had been seen as a potential risk-off trigger, but failed to spark a flight into the yen. Open interest rose faster than price, and funding rates flipped decisively positive, signaling fresh leveraged longs rather than short covering. SOL and XRP saw declining open interest and altcoin-season indicators hit new lows, while ETH outperformed BTC despite broader weakness. The crypto market's rich vein of volatility extended into Friday morning, with bitcoin BTC $ 88,248.60 rising from a 1:00 a.m. UTC low of $85,200 to $88,000 over five hours after the Bank of Japan increased interest rates to the highest level in 30 years. The move marked the fourth time bitcoin has jumped by more than 2% this week, although each rally has been temporary and quickly faded as price action resembles the choppy behavior of previous crypto bear markets. 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 . Nasdaq 100 futures rose by 0.62% during the same five-hour window as the yen fell, suggesting that the rate hike was priced in and investors weren't rushing to swap risk assets for Japan's national currency. A Bank of Japan rate hike is often thought to be bearish for risk assets because it could make the yen more expensive to borrow and spur the unwinding of the carry trade, in which traders borrow cheap yen at low rates and use it to buy higher-yielding assets like U.S. bonds, equities and crypto. Derivatives positioning Bitcoin open interest rose faster than price on Friday morning, showing that the move was backed by leveraged long positions rather investors looking to cover short positions. The aggregate funding rate for bitcoin across all exchanges rose to 0.085%, the highest level since Nov. 21, after being negative on several occasions in the past four weeks, according to Coinalyze . A positive funding rate indicates a bullish environment because those holding long positions are required to pay a rate of interest to those shorting. The inverse is true when funding is negative. The altcoin market failed to mirror bitcoin's bullish derivatives signals, with SOL and XRP open interest dropping by 4.4% and 2.6%, respectively, despite price movements of less than 1%. The discrepancy suggests futures traders are slowly exiting the speculative assets. Funding rates for Cardano’s privacy token NIGHT $ 0.06672 remain heavily depressed at -0.1987%, demonstrating a strong preference on the short side of the trade. Bitcoin’s long/short ratio, which compares the net number of accounts that are long against those that are short, shows a bullish skew as 66% of traders went long over the past four hours. Token talk While the wider altcoin market continues to suffer, as demonstrated by CoinMarketCap’s “altcoin season” indicator falling to fresh cycle lows of 14/100, ether ETH $ 2,970.18 bucked that trend by outperforming bitcoin. ETH rose by 1.5% against bitcoin between 2:50 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., although it's worth noting that until Thursday, ETH/BTC trading pair was in a downtrend this week. The relative uncertainty and choppy behavior of bitcoin has negatively impacted altcoins with several tokens began to sell-off in past couple of hours. RNDR, IMX, WLFI and ATOM all fell. In order to regain strength the altcoin market needs bitcoin to rise above a level of resistance and consolidate, which would spur capital to flow from bitcoin gains to more speculative bets. The lack of speculation is demonstrated by CoinDesk's memecoin index (CDMEME), which is up by 2.42% since midnight UTC while the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) is up by 3.68% over the same period. Crypto Markets Today Derivatives market analysis 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 Oracle TikTok deal lifts AI mining stocks as bitcoin tags $88,000 By James Van Straten | Edited by Jamie Crawley 12 minutes ago Oracle shares jumped 6% in pre-market on Friday as TikTok's U.S. agreement helped calm AI bubble fears after a volatile macro week. What to know : Oracle shares climbed about 6% to around $190 Friday's pre market trading. TikTok agreed to form a U.S. joint venture led by American investors, reinforcing Oracle’s role as a core AI cloud and data security provider easing AI concerns. The deal helped improve broader risk sentiment with bitcoin back above $88,000, also lifting AI mining stocks in the process. 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