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Bitcoin starts December on a decline as selling pushed the price below $90,000 and erased last week’s short recovery. The move followed the token’s weakest month since 2021 and raised concern that a deeper shakeout may still lie ahead. In early Monday trading, Bitcoin dropped more than 5% and briefly traded under $86,000 before stabilizing near the mid-$86,000 zone.
Ether also slipped toward $2,830, while major tokens including XRP and Solana fell in tandem. The retreat pulled the total crypto market value back under $3 trillion.
The latest decline came after decentralized finance protocol Yearn Finance reported an incident in its yETH liquidity pool. The team said attackers minted extra yETH in a single transaction and drained liquidity, with losses estimated at $9 million. Security firms tracked most of the stolen funds through mixing services, while Yearn said its main vaults remained secure.
Traders responded by cutting risk across major tokens. Data from derivatives platforms showed large blocks of leveraged long positions liquidated during the Asian session. Many participants had expected a continuation of last week’s bounce and appeared unprepared for another sharp leg lower. The setback followed a difficult month in which Bitcoin lost almost 22% while Ether fell roughly 25%.
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States also showed a weaker appetite. November saw heavy outflows, with spot products recording sizeable net redemptions. Analysts said the flows suggested that some institutions chose to lock in profits after this year’s rally instead of adding exposure at current levels.
Bitcoin’s link with equity markets remained tight. The token moved lower alongside US stock index futures, which slipped on renewed worries about the growth outlook and interest-rate policy. Strategists at several brokerages described Bitcoin as a high-beta gauge of risk sentiment and warned that further equity weakness could invite additional crypto selling.
Against this backdrop, a market analyst who posts under the name “NoLimit” projected a deeper shakeout over the next year. In a recent post on X, he argued that Bitcoin could trade below $50,000 in 2026, which would mean a decline of more than 40% from current levels. He linked the view to growing imbalances in the US economy and pointed to a widening gap between national assets and liabilities.
NoLimit also warned that a correction of that scale could spread across other asset classes. He suggested that the S&P 500 might lose up to 40% from its highs, with weaker companies seeing steeper declines. In contrast, he expected gold to benefit from stress in both equities and crypto, with a possible move toward $6,500 an ounce.
Also Read: Will ETF Inflows and Breakout Strength Push Ethereum Toward a $6,000 Target?
