Bitcoin has hovered near $90,000 for 18 consecutive days, according to AMBCrypto, underscoring one of this year's longer tight consolidations. Alphractal flagged the Realized Cap Impulse at a historically important support, with key levels near $88,000 and $81,400, and $56,400 below. Onchain Mind noted open interest fell about 15%, while funding stayed above 0.0044% and the long/short ratio sat just over 1.02.

According to Glassnode, unrealized losses across crypto have reached $350 billion, including $85 billion tied to Bitcoin investors, even as outflows begin to ease. Digital Asset Treasuries now hold more than 1.69 million BTC and U.S. spot ETFs saw $286.6 million net inflows last week, despite a negative Fund Market Premium.

Merlin Chain’s MERL token, a Bitcoin layer-2 asset, has surged 16% while perpetual futures open interest reached a record $75.79 million and holders climbed to 173,800. Derivatives-led liquidity, a buy-heavy taker ratio and ongoing spot accumulation support the uptrend, but a liquidation heatmap with major liquidity pools below the current price signals elevated short-term pullback risk.

Ethereum has been trading above $3,000 while on-chain data shows a sharp drop in exchange reserves and rising accumulation. Correlation with the record-high Russell 2000 and renewed institutional ETF inflows, including a $42.30 million purchase on 11 December, are raising expectations that ETH could enter a stronger bullish phase heading into 2026.

At press time, Bitcoin traded around $91,400 after rebounding from $84,000 to nearly $93,000. According to CryptoQuant, total exchange volume fell from 88,000 BTC to about 21,000 BTC, average deposits slid from 1.1 BTC to 0.7 BTC, and whale deposit share dropped from 47% to 21%, setting up a potential test of $98,700 and even $102,000–$112,700.

Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) has dropped 11%, marking the steepest 24‑hour loss among the top 100 cryptocurrencies as capital exits its derivatives market. Despite a 19% decline in Open Interest and nearly $1 million in long liquidations, funding and Long/Short data on Binance and spot inflows suggest investors are still positioning for a potential rebound.

MemeCore's token M rose more than 10.2% as trading activity accelerated, with Market Volume up 39% to about $50 million over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. Despite better technical signals, the price has yet to close above the $1.39–$1.52 resistance band, keeping further upside toward $1.82–$1.93 dependent on a breakout. The funding rate turned positive on 8 December, signaling that long exposure has overtaken shorts.

Fetch.ai’s FET token rose 11% over the past day, but liquidity clusters above the current price on the chart point to the risk of a sharp pullback. Spot flows, positioning patterns and on-chain valuation indicators paint a mixed picture of confidence, according to AMBCrypto. By contrast, derivatives data show rising Open Interest and positive funding, which continue to underpin a bullish setup in the near term.

Ethereum traded at $3,033 with neutral momentum as whale cohorts showed divergent behavior. Wallets holding 1,000–10,000 ETH continued distribution while U.S. investors quietly accumulated since December 1st, according to the Coinbase Premium Index. Exchange deposits dropped sharply from 106,100 addresses on November 30 to approximately 5,197, signaling reduced selling pressure.