Not waiting until what's become its customary plunge time of Sunday evening, bitcoin BTC$91,016.40 is getting an early start to the weekend this holiday season, continuing an overnight tumble and slipping back to $90,000 in early U.S. trading hours.

The move reverses much of the bounce from last Sunday night's panicky drop that pushed bitcoin all the way back to $84,000.

Ethereum's ether ETH$3,131.61 is 2% lower in concert with BTC, while other leading altcoins such as Solana SOL$136.13, ADA$0.4288, DOGE$0.1434 and HYPE$31.69 are down more than 4% each.

The action could reinforce prior analyst forecasts that instead of a rapid rebound there's more consolidation is ahead towards the year-end for the crypto market.

Crypto-related equities as a result are sharply lower across the board, with Strategy (MSTR), Galaxy Digital (GLXY), CleanSpark (CLSK), and American Bitcoin (ABTC) among those sporting declines of 4%-7%.

According to Velo data, the most bearish time of day over the past six months has been the hour before the US market opens and the first hour of US trading.
Friday has also been the most consistently bearish day of the week across the same time period.

Anecdotal inflation data sparks hope

University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment numbers released at 10 am ET might lighten the bearish mood for the remainder of the day.

Though very much anecdotal and tended to be swayed by which political party respondents favor, the December 1-Year Consumer Inflation Expectation fell to 4.1% from 4.5% previously and 4.5% expected. The 5-Year Consumer Inflation Expectation fell to 3.2% from 3.4% previously and 3.4% expected.

With the dearth of official economic data of late, these private surveys have taken on a new level of significance and bitcoin did manage a modest bump back to the $91,000 area in the minutes following the report.

With the Fed more or less a 100% bet to trim interest rates at its final meeting of the year next week, traders are now focused on early next year. To the extent that inflation eases, it could give room for further rate cuts in the first quarter of 2026, potentially bullish action for risk markets, crypto among them.