Asia Market Storm Warning: Bitcoin Struggles to Hold $86,000 Level, Market Anxiety Awaits New "Barometer"

On December 1, 2025, the Asian market opened, and the Crypto Assets market faced a new round of intense dumping. Bitcoin (Bitcoin) once plunged over 5%, falling below the $86,000 mark, while Ethereum (Ethereum) and other mainstream Tokens followed with a big dump. This big dump caused over 210,000 Margin Trading participants to Get Liquidated, with strong risk aversion in the market. Analysts pointed out that the depletion of funds flowing into Bitcoin Spot ETF and macro uncertainty are the core concerns of the current market.

Asian opening “flash crash”: total collapse and panic spreading

On the first day of December 2025, the Asian trading session brought a “safe haven” start to the cryptocurrency market. Early Monday morning Beijing time, the price of Bitcoin suddenly plummeted, dropping more than 5.1% at one point, breaking through the $86,000 support level. As of the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin is temporarily reported around $86,500, trying to find a stabilizing point. This big dump is not an isolated event; the entire market has collapsed: Ether (ETH) plunged more than 6%, with the price falling below $2,900; mainstream altcoins such as Solana (SOL), Ripple (XRP), and Dogecoin (DOGE) all saw declines exceeding 7%.

Severe price fluctuations quickly liquidated high margin trading positions. According to Coinglass data, the number of people liquidated across the network reached 218,800 in the past 24 hours, and a silent “long liquidation” is underway. Sean McNulty, head of derivatives trading for FalconX in the Asia-Pacific region, described this moment as the “start of December with strong market risk aversion” and pointed out that the most concerning sign is the scarce inflow of funds into the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), with no signs of buyers stepping in at lower prices in the market.

The root cause of the deep pullback: the aftershocks of the “10.11” incident and macro headwinds

This big dump is not without signs; it is a continuation of weeks of selling. The seeds of market instability were sown as early as early October 2025. Just days after Bitcoin set a historical high of $126,251, a concentrated margin liquidation event broke out, resulting in approximately $19 billion in leveraged positions being liquidated. This impact, referred to by industry venture capital firms as the “10.11 liquidation event,” combined with a tightening macro environment, constitutes the core driving force behind this ongoing correction.

Dragonfly partner Rob Hadick analyzes that multiple factors, including low liquidity, insufficient risk management, and flaws in oracle or leverage design, have contributed to a large-scale deleveraging, continuously releasing uncertainty into the market. At the same time, expectations for short-term interest rate cuts have cooled, inflation data shows stickiness, and geopolitical risks have increased, creating macro headwinds that have pressured global risk assets overall in the past two months. Robot Ventures partner Anirudh Pai added that some leading economic indicators in the U.S. have begun to decline, a similar trend was seen during past “recession worries” phases, but it is currently difficult to determine whether this will evolve into a full-blown recession.

Market Status: Stabilization or Downward Continuation? Key Support Levels Become the Focus

Despite experiencing a big dump on Monday, several venture capital institutions believe that the current market may be in a “preliminary stabilization but not reversal” stage. Bitcoin has rebounded from the November low of around $80,000, and the slight improvement in ETF fund inflows is a sign of stabilization. However, the market lacks new capital inflows and remains highly sensitive to interest rate policies, inflation data, and technology stock earnings reports, which prevents the establishment of a bottom formation.

Traders are focused on the next key support level. Sean McNulty made it clear that they are closely watching Bitcoin at the $80,000 mark, which will be the next critical line to determine whether the market will undergo further deep adjustments. On the other hand, a reversal in market sentiment requires stronger signals. Several market participants view the $100,000 to $110,000 range as an important interval for judging a fundamental shift in market sentiment. Only when we see sustained net inflows into Bitcoin ETFs, a moderate rebound in derivatives open interest, and no excessive accumulation of leverage will a more solid reversal structure be possible.

A noteworthy positive signal is that Bitcoin's dominance (Bitcoin Dominance) has not significantly increased during this round of correction. This indicates that there is still a demand for high-quality altcoins (Altcoin) with fundamentals and income potential, and the valuations of some such tokens have been reset to 2024 levels, presenting relative attractiveness.

In the coming week: everyone's attention turns to the Federal Reserve and PCE

The short-term fate of the market will be closely tied to the key economic data set to be released in the coming week. This week will provide a “critical snapshot” of the momentum of the U.S. economy, which policymakers will use to weigh the interest rate path up to 2026. The data will directly impact the market's expectations of whether the Federal Reserve will continue its interest rate cut cycle.

Currently, market expectations for interest rate cuts are sharply rising. According to CME Federal Funds Rate futures, the market bets on an over 80% probability that the Federal Reserve will cut rates by 25 basis points in December. The Federal Reserve has entered its quiet period before the December meeting, and all market focus has shifted to the U.S. September Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index report to be released this Friday. This report, viewed by the Federal Reserve as the most closely watched inflation indicator, is expected to remain high, with the market anticipating that the year-on-year growth rate of the core PCE in September will hold at 2.9%. The performance of this report will become the most critical reference for the December meeting and could also trigger the next significant volatility in the crypto assets market.

Conclusion: Growing Pains and Opportunities in Mature Markets

With the development from 2024 to 2025, the structure of participants in the crypto assets market has changed significantly, and the increased proportion of institutional funds means that future price fluctuations will be more driven by fundamentals and data. The Bitcoin market in 2026 is expected to become more mature and rational, with institutional gameplay and rational pricing becoming the norm. This does not mean that the market will lack trading opportunities; rather, the kind of “get rich quick and lose it all” scenarios driven purely by emotions and margin trading will be harder to reproduce.

For users of the Gate exchange, focusing on the practical value of the platform's native Token GT (GateToken) in a volatile market may become part of a diversified strategy. GT aims to provide long-term value support independent of short-term market fluctuations, thanks to its practical utility in trading fee discounts, Launchpad participation, and ecosystem staking, as well as its deflationary token burn mechanism. Currently, before the macro path is clarified, the market may continue to be in a state of high sensitivity and turbulence, and investors need to buckle up and respond cautiously to each change in the “wind speed” of data and policy.