In what's become all too familiar action at the start of the U.S. trading day, the crypto sector quickly more than gave up even the tiniest hint of an overnight rally.
Nudging above $89,000 at one point as the U.S. slept on Friday, bitcoin quickly tumbled back below $87,000 as American stocks opened for trade following the Christmas holiday.
Again all too familiar for crypto bulls, the poor price action occurred as metals continued to soar, with gold, silver, copper and platinum all posting new record highs on Friday.
Already attracting capital that might otherwise go to bitcoin as part of the global debasement trade, the metals today are also maybe benefitting from rising geopolitical tension after the U.S. hit Islamic State targets in Nigeria on Christmas Day and added to pressure against Venezuela by blocking sanctioned oil tankers.
Palladium and platinum led the metals surge, both up more than 10%, while silver and copper gained 5%. Gold is ahead 1.5% to $4,573 per ounce.
The Nasdaq, S&P 500, and DJIA were all trading nearly flat in morning action.
Bitcoin was lower by 1.6% over the past 24 hours; ether was down similarly. was off more than 4% and sank 3%, leading losses for the rest of the sector.
Crypto stocks were also in the red, with Coinbase (COIN), named one of the three most promising fintech ideas in 2026 by Clear Street's Owen Lau, outperforming with just a 2% decline. Gemini (GEMI) was down 6%, Bullish (BLSH) off 3.8% and Galaxy Digital (GLXY) lower by 3.5%.
Bitcoin miners were hit especially hard in the early post-Christmas trading session — even those who have pivoted business models from mining BTC to AI infrastructure. IREN (IREN), Cipher Mining (CIFR), Terawulf (WULF) and Marathon Digital (MARA) were among those falling 5% or more. A standout performer over the past week on its own AI plans, Hut 8 (HUT) was leading the loss list Friday, down 7.5%.
