(Bloomberg) — A Bitcoin rally is fizzling in the final days of a record-breaking year for the digital asset, as investors assess the remaining impetus from President-elect Donald Trump’s embrace of the cryptocurrency sector.
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The largest token changed hands at $95,600 as of 8:45 a.m. Friday in Singapore, holding a retreat of almost 3% from a day earlier. Smaller rivals including Ether and Dogecoin, a favorite of the meme crowd, struggled for traction.
Trump is pushing ahead with a promise to create a crypto-friendly environment in the US and has backed the idea of establishing a national Bitcoin reserve. Traders are waiting to see if such a stockpile is feasible.
The crypto market is also braced for the expiry of a substantial quantity of Bitcoin and Ether options contracts on Friday — one of the biggest such events in the history of digital assets, according to prime broker FalconX.
Sean McNulty, director of trading at liquidity provider Arbelos Markets, flagged the risk of a “choppy market” amid the expiry of the derivatives positions.
Bitcoin is wavering even after MicroStrategy Inc. this week signaled the possibility of expanding its program of purchases of the token. The company has transformed itself from a software maker into a Bitcoin accumulator and now owns more than $40 billion of the digital asset.
The original cryptocurrency is headed toward a drop for December, which would be its first monthly decline in four, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Bitcoin reached a record high of $108,316 on Dec. 17 before pulling back.
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