Bitcoin returns to $91,000 but the rebound is weak, XRP ETF attracts $130 million on its first day, becoming a highlight.

On Thursday morning in Asia, Bitcoin and major Crypto Assets saw a slight rise, but several traders believe this is more of a temporary Rebound rather than a trend reversal. Bitcoin hovers around $91,000, and despite a strong stock market and a weak dollar, the overall trend remains sluggish. The total market capitalization of Crypto Assets rebounded by 0.6% to $3.02 trillion, recovering only a small part of last week's big dump losses.

Recent market trends are highly correlated with the risk appetite of the US market. The rise in Wall Street stocks briefly pushed digital assets higher, but selling pressure re-emerged by the close, indicating that natural buying outside the US remains weak. Against the backdrop of a warming global risk sentiment, declining yields, and improving liquidity, the fatigue of the crypto market is particularly pronounced.

Among mainstream coins, Ethereum (ETH) rose 3.1% to $3,030, XRP increased by 0.8%, and BNB surged by 4%, as funds flowed back into large-cap altcoins after significant selling last week. In contrast, Solana (SOL) fell 3.3%, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose 1.8%, but most mainstream tokens still recorded a decline this week. Cardano (ADA) has dropped 7% over the past seven days, continuing to underperform.

Market focus is on the strong performance of the XRP ETF. Grayscale's GXRP raised $67.4 million on its first day, and Franklin Templeton's XRPZ raised $62.6 million. The total assets of the XRP ETF surpassed $628 million, absorbing nearly 80 million XRP in just 24 hours, with its first-day performance even exceeding that of the Solana ETF earlier this year. Currently, there are four spot XRP funds launched in the U.S., with Canary's XRPC leading the way with a cumulative inflow of $331 million.

The weakness of Bitcoin, in the view of some analysts, mainly stems from profit-taking by institutional investors at the end of the year. Anthony Pompliano believes this is a risk contraction based on volatility and bonus cycles, rather than a structural bearish outlook. CryptoQuant points out that Bitcoin's current risk-reward ratio is close to the most attractive range of mid-2023, which typically indicates that the market enters an “accumulation phase” rather than a trend decline. The long-short ratio of Binance's main accounts has risen to a three-year high of 3.8, also indicating that leveraged traders are betting on a reversal.

Despite weak short-term funds, Citigroup still expects Bitcoin to maintain a wide consolidation range of $82,000 to $90,000 before early 2026. (CoinDesk)