Bitcoin craters below $86,000, Ethereum dips 7% in crypto wipeout

Cryptocurrencies were hammered again Monday as Bitcoin and Ethereum plunged, deepening a market rout that has erased billions in value and rattled traders already bracing for more volatility.

Bitcoin slid as much as 6% to below $86,000 in early trading before recovering slightly to around $86,788.

Ethereum fared even worse, at one point dropping more than 7% to roughly $2,800.

Solana tumbled nearly 8%, and Dogecoin shed more than 8%, extending November’s bruising declines across the sector.

The renewed slump hit just as the broader crypto market was attempting to stabilize after a weeks-long sell-off that began when $19 billion in leveraged bets were wiped out in early October — only days after Bitcoin hit an all-time high above $126,000.

Bitcoin lost 16.7% of its value in November, its second-worst month of 2025, before clawing back some gains last week.

But Monday’s sudden reversal underscored just how fragile sentiment remains heading into December.

“It’s a risk off start to December,” Sean McNulty, APAC derivatives trading lead at FalconX, told Bloomberg News.

The latest sell-off comes after a dramatic six-month cycle of boom and bust that swept through every major cryptocurrency.

Between June and October, the market staged a blistering rally driven by institutional inflows, ETF launches and network upgrades. Bitcoin surged to record highs, Ethereum nearly doubled, and tokens such as Solana and Dogecoin soared on heavy whale accumulation and bullish technical setups.

But the fourth quarter brought a swift reversal. Bitcoin sank over 19% across the six-month period ending Dec. 1, while Solana, Dogecoin, Cardano, Avalanche, Polygon and Polkadot all posted steep losses ranging from 15% to more than 45%.

“The biggest concern is the meager inflows into Bitcoin exchange traded funds and absence of dip buyers,” McNulty told Bloomberg News.

“We expect the structural headwinds to continue this month. We are watching $80,000 on Bitcoin as the next key support level.”

The anxiety was echoed across major trading desks as risk appetite evaporated in global markets. Asian equities wobbled following their best weekly rally in two months.

Japanese stocks slumped and the yen surged after Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda signaled a potential rate hike — a shift that threatens to unwind the lucrative yen carry trade and ripple through all risk assets, including crypto.

Beyond the immediate catalysts, leverage remains a flashing red warning signal.

Ben Emons, founder and CIO of Fedwatch Advisors, told CNBC that investors remain “nervous” following October’s wipeout.

“There is still a lot of leverage in Bitcoin out there. We can expect some more of these liquidations if Bitcoin prices don’t get off the lows from here,” he said.

He flagged leverage levels of up to 200x on some exchanges — a setup that magnifies even small swings into violent liquidations.

Emons added that crypto’s structure amplifies instability.

“It’s predominantly retail driven, that’s the worrying part of it, because retail reacts very differently than institutional [investors],” he said. The decentralized and opaque nature of many exchanges, he warned, makes risk harder to track.

“That is something to reckon with going forward from here, as more and more leverage is used in this space.”