Bitcoin’s rally is fading as the token’s record-breaking year comes to an end

(Bloomberg) — Bitcoin’s rally is fading in the final days of a record year for the digital asset, as investors take stock of the remaining momentum from President-elect Donald Trump’s embrace of the cryptocurrency sector.

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The largest token was trading at $94,673 as of 11:38 a.m. Friday in New York, partly paring a roughly 3% decline from the previous day. Smaller rivals, including Ether and Dogecoin, a favorite of the meme crowd, swung in narrow ranges.

Trump is moving forward on his promise to create a cryptocurrency-friendly environment in the United States, and has supported the idea of ​​creating a national bitcoin reserve. Traders are depositing some of the profits from the Republican cryptocurrency promotion and waiting to see if the proposed reserve is feasible.

Options expiry

The cryptocurrency market is also preparing for the expiration of a large amount of Bitcoin and Ethereum options contracts on Friday – one of the largest such events in the history of digital assets, according to prime broker FalconEx.

The nominal value of Bitcoin contracts on the Deribit exchange – one of the largest digital asset derivatives exchanges – exceeds $14 billion, while the equivalent figure for Ether is about $3.8 billion.

Sean McNulty, trading director at liquidity provider Arbelos Markets, pointed to the risk of a “volatile market” amid expiring derivatives positions.

Accurate strategic plan

Bitcoin is oscillating even after MicroStrategy Inc. signaled… This week it indicated the possibility of expanding its token purchasing program. The company has transformed itself from a software maker into a Bitcoin aggregator and now owns more than $40 billion in digital assets.

The native cryptocurrency is headed lower for December, which would be its first monthly decline in four months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Bitcoin reached a record high of $108,316 on December 17 before pulling back.

Investors withdrew a net $1.5 billion from a group of twelve US spot currency exchange-traded funds in the four trading days through December 24, the largest outflow since Trump won the US election on November 5. However, the trend reversed on Thursday, as investors pumped $475 million into the group, ending the four-day streak.

(Updates prices, ETF flows)

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