Bitcoin price (BTC) reversed lower after the Christmas rally

As much of the world celebrates Christmas, Bitcoin (BTC) appeared quietly poised to reclaim $100,000 after falling below $93,000 just before the holidays.

However, the rally stalled at just above $99,800 as Asia opened for business on Thursday morning and quickly fell to around $95,000 just a few hours later.

At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $95,300, down 3.1% in the last 24 hours.

The broader CoinDesk 20 index fell 4.2% over the same period, with ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA and AVAX posting losses of 4% to 7% among cryptos on that measure.

US markets are open on Thursday and stock index futures point to modest initial losses; Gold and oil are slightly in the green.

Cryptocurrency price action over the last 48 hours is certainly due to very low volume, and Bitcoin has still more than doubled since the start of the year. However, last week’s declines may have overlooked the fact that the tailwinds of lower interest rates may have become headwinds.

The 10-year Treasury yield continued to rise early Thursday and is now at 4.63%, just a few basis points away from its 2024 peak. The yield is now nearly 100 basis points higher since the Federal Reserve cut short-term interest rates by 50 basis points in September.

Macro researcher Jim Bianco noted that the rapid rise in long-term interest rates following a Fed rate cut is almost unprecedented in modern monetary history. “The bond market will continue to sell (higher yields) the more the Fed talks about cutting rates in 2025,” Bianco said. “If the Fed doesn’t abandon its rate-cutting talks, bond yields will rise as high as necessary to kill things and slow inflation.”