Crypto Market Sees Modest Gains Amid Mixed ETF Flows and Market Uncertainty on December 19, 2025
The cryptocurrency market cap increased by 1.6% to $3.05 trillion, with 90 of the top 100 coins rising in the last 24 hours and total trading volume around $164 billion.
Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a 1.4% gain, reaching $87,906 after an intraday high of $89,219 and a low of $84,581, suggesting market conditions where a move above $90,000 could lead toward $100,000, though downside risk remains to the $74,000 level. Despite this, BTC is still in a broader downtrend with limited sustained buying conviction. Ethereum (ETH) rose 4.1% to $2,953.
Market sentiment remains cautious, reflected by the Crypto Fear & Greed Index at 21, near the extreme fear zone.
US economic data released showed cooler-than-expected November CPI, distorted by atypical conditions including a government shutdown, leading analysts to treat the data as an anomaly. This leaves ongoing uncertainty about inflation trends and Federal Reserve policy direction.
In the ETF space, US BTC spot ETFs posted outflows totaling $161.32 million on Thursday, with a cumulative BTC ETF net inflow at $57.57 billion. Among 12 BTC ETFs, three recorded outflows and one an inflow. Notably, BlackRock BTC ETFs saw inflows of $32.76 million, while Fidelity, Ark&21Shares, and Bitwise experienced outflows of $170.28 million, $12.27 million, and $11.54 million, respectively.
US ETH ETFs also saw outflows totaling $96.62 million, but the total ETH ETF net inflow remains $12.52 billion. Grayscale ETH ETFs posted inflows of $5.63 million, while BlackRock ETH ETFs experienced outflows of $102.24 million.
Supporting the ETH market, Tom Lee’s BitMine treasury has purchased at least $229.31 million worth of ETH in the past week, accumulating 407,331 ETH in the last 30 days; BitMine now owns over 3.2% of the total ETH supply.
Meanwhile, Binance is reportedly considering a return to the US market, potentially through a recapitalization of Binance.US. This move could include reducing CEO Changpeng Zhao’s controlling stake and appears to be developing partnerships with BlackRock and WLFI.
