Bitcoin suffered a sharp pullback on Sunday night, falling below $86,000 and wiping out $144 billion in value in the crypto market.
Global macroeconomic pressures and the Yearn Finance hack have led investors to adopt a risk-off stance. Bitcoin fell 4.8% in the last 24 hours to $86,310. Ethereum, XRP, and Solana fell 5.36%, 6.39%, and 6.41%, respectively.
A massive sell-off on Sunday evening sent Bitcoin plummeting from $91,300 to $86,000 in just three hours. This drastic move completely erased the recovery above $90,000 that BTC had maintained for the past five days. More than $144 billion in capital evaporated, with the crypto market's total value falling 4.5 percent in the last four hours.
According to experts, Bitcoin's rise in previous weeks was supported by expectations that the US Federal Reserve would cut interest rates in December.
However, BTC Markets analyst Rachael Lucas noted that the possibility of a rate cut was priced in months ago, saying, “The market is still under pressure from inflation and tariff talk.” According to Lucas, the $3.5 billion outflow from Bitcoin ETFs in November and the liquidation of leveraged long positions triggered a “classic deleveraging” process in the market.
The Yearn Finance yETH pool was hacked, with attackers sending 1,000 ETH to Tornado Cash, which also accelerated the decline.
Analysts say $85,000 is a critical support level, and if this level is broken, $80,400 and $75,000 could be the next targets. However, they also say a potential Fed rate cut could push Bitcoin back into the $95,000-$100,000 range.
*deleveraging: Reducing the leverage (debt/principal) ratio, i.e. indirectly reducing investment risk.
*This is not investment advice.
