Bitcoin slipped back below $90,000 on Monday, trading in the high-$86,000s to high-$87,000s after a brief weekend breakout above the round number, according to CryptoSlate and live data from CoinMarketCap. The move kept BTC roughly 31% under its early-October all-time high near $126,200 and extended a choppy year-end tape.
CryptoSlate editor Liam “Akiba” Wright framed the slide as part of a “toxic cross-asset mix” as crude oil rallied and gold sold off while U.S. yields hovered near 4%. His TradingView snapshot showed Bitcoin reversing from just above $90,000 back toward $86,800 as West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed about 1.8% intraday to roughly $58 per barrel and spot gold dropped around 1.7% near $4,450.
“The weekend push above $90,000 and the quick reversal back to the mid-$80,000s fit that kind of tape.”
That tape now hinges on whether energy markets keep tightening and whether derivatives positioning unwinds in an orderly way. If both break the wrong way, spot holders sit under a thick layer of overhead supply around $90,000 that already rejected price once this week.
Energy rally tightens screws on miners
The cross-asset story starts in oil. Reuters reported on Monday that Brent crude rose about 2.2% to $61.97 and WTI gained roughly 2.3% to $58.05 as traders weighed Ukraine peace talks against fresh supply risks in the Middle East and Nigeria (Dec. 29 report). Just days earlier, OilPrice.com flagged the strongest weekly advance in crude since October, with both benchmarks up more than $2 per barrel in the last full week of 2025 (Dec. 26 analysis).
Higher fuel costs feed straight into power markets. The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects wholesale electricity prices in most U.S. regions to average about $40 per megawatt hour in 2025, up 7% from 2024, driven largely by a 24% jump in delivered natural gas costs to $3.37 per MMBtu, according to a January outlook summarized by the American Public Power Association (APPA recap). EIA projects the steepest wholesale power increases, roughly 30% to 35%, in the Southwest and California.
For energy-intensive Bitcoin miners, that backdrop lands on top of already thin margins. A December mining review from CCN, citing industry hashprice data, estimated that Bitcoin mining revenue has dropped around 30% to 35% this year, from roughly $55 to about $35 per petahash per day. The same report pegged production costs near $44 per petahash per day and noted that many operators now run at a loss unless they secure power below roughly $0.06 per kilowatt hour (Dec. 11 analysis).
JPMorgan analysts already flagged the squeeze earlier in the cycle. In a January note, they calculated that December 2024 daily block reward revenue per exahash had improved about 10% month over month but still sat 43% under pre-halving levels, with gross profit per unit of hash power down more than half compared with the period before April’s reward cut (CoinDesk summary).
Put together, miners now face lower bitcoin-denominated revenue per unit of hash, higher dollar-denominated energy costs, and a spot market that just rejected $90,000. Public miners with debt or expansion plans have a clear incentive to sell more of their treasuries into strength, while smaller operators in high-cost regions either curtail production or liquidate coins to keep the lights on.
Derivatives stay in control of price
Derivatives still steer the tape. CoinGlass shows Bitcoin futures open interest around $58 billion, with 24-hour futures volume near $66.9 billion versus only about $6.2 billion in spot turnover (CoinGlass dashboard). That ratio lines up with a recent CoinGlass report, covered by AMBCrypto, that concluded price discovery has shifted decisively toward futures, perpetual swaps, and options, which now account for the majority of BTC trading activity (Dec. 25 piece).
The same report highlighted a combination of elevated open interest and compressed realized volatility, a structure that stores risk in the system while spot charts look calm. When positioning reaches that kind of balance, moves like the weekend’s failed breakout tend to reflect flows around hedges, margin, and liquidations more than fresh spot demand.
CryptoSlate pointed to that dynamic on options venue Deribit, where a large year-end expiry has forced dealers and funds to rebalance hedges into thin liquidity. Wright tied the failed push through $90,000 and the slide toward the mid-$80,000s to that hedging and deleveraging cycle rather than to a single crypto-native catalyst.
Earlier in the quarter, Bitcoin.com reported that Bitcoin options open interest hit a lifetime high as traders loaded up on calls while spot hovered near $113,500, reinforcing the idea that options structures now frame most short-term risk instead of simple spot buying or selling (October feature). Today’s $58 billion of futures open interest keeps that theme alive even after the latest drawdown.
Key levels into year-end
Technically, the market just turned $90,000 into a clear supply zone. CryptoSlate’s intraday chart work shows stop orders and profit-taking stacked near that level after the weekend rejection, while the mid-$80,000s have provided the first layer of dip demand during this pullback. Wright flagged the low-$80,000s as the next area where bids previously appeared, should sellers punch through current support.
Macro still hangs over that picture. If crude stays firm and inflation expectations creep higher, traders expect pressure on long-duration assets and higher-beta trades, including Bitcoin. If oil cools and real yields remain contained, BTC has room to oscillate between the mid-$80,000s and the $90,000 band while post-expiry derivatives flows reset.
As of Monday afternoon, BTC hovered in the high-$87,000s, down less than 1% over 24 hours but more than 30% off its October peak. The level holds, for now. The drivers sit in energy screens and derivatives books rather than on-chain.
