Bitcoin bulls foiled again as price tumbles back to $86,000, giving up CPI gains and more

[Tom Lee Believes Bitcoin Has Not Peaked in This Cycle and Expects a New All-Time High by the End of January Next Year] Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat and chairman of BitMine, stated in an interview with CNBC that he does not believe Bitcoin has peaked in this cycle. Although his previous expectation of a new high in December was overly optimistic, he is confident that Bitcoin should reach a new all-time high by the end of January next year. He noted that this expectation applies not only to Bitcoin but also to Ethereum and the entire crypto market.

[Another Whale Liquidated, Losing $5.15 Million; HYPE Long Position Only 1.44% Away from Next Liquidation] HyperInsight data shows that the whale who was previously liquidated for 26 million HYPE long positions faced another round of cascading liquidations this morning for HYPE and ETH long positions, totaling approximately $19.2 million, with losses of about $5.15 million. The liquidation price for the whale's HYPE long position is $22.2, which is only about 1.44% away from the current price. The position size is approximately $12.75 million, with an unrealized loss of $4.91 million. The ETH long position size is approximately $7.23 million, with an unrealized loss of $770,000. Over the past two days, this whale has been liquidated for a total of approximately $56.8 million, with cumulative losses exceeding $13.1 million.

[New Wallet Address Establishes $4.72 Million HYPE 10x Leverage Long Position] A newly created wallet address 0x7796 has established a 10x leverage long position of 207,497 HYPE, with a total value of approximately $4.72 million. The liquidation price for this position is $13.681.

[Delphi Digital: Bitcoin Should Benefit from Improved Global Liquidity in 2026] Delphi Digital released its 2026 market outlook report, highlighting that the global macro environment is converging, with major central banks shifting toward interest rate cuts and fiscal deficits driving increased liquidity demand. As the Federal Reserve's quantitative tightening nears its end and the People's Bank of China ramps up support, global liquidity is expected to improve in 2026. The report notes that while the scale of liquidity may not match that of 2020, the pace of easing will be more predictable. Given that global M2 and gold prices have reached record highs, and historically gold and liquidity indicators tend to lead Bitcoin, assets like Bitcoin are expected to benefit.

[Today's Crypto Fear and Greed Index is 16, the market remains in an 'Extreme Fear' state] On December 19, Alternative data shows that today's Crypto Fear and Greed Index is 16, compared to 17 yesterday, and the market remains in an 'Extreme Fear' state.