The global cryptocurrency market entered a phase of consolidation and heightened caution during the final week of December 2025, establishing the technical framework for price action entering the new year. Bitcoin (BTC) has persistently tested the significant psychological resistance level near $90,000, frequently failing to achieve a decisive, sustained breakout. Price action over the preceding week showed Bitcoin trading between $87,000 and $88,000, with a brief peak at $89,542 recorded on December 22, 2025, before retreating, according to data tracked by CoinGecko. This inability to clear the $90,000 mark, which coincides with the 50-day moving average and previous support now acting as resistance, indicates substantial overhead supply or a current lack of buyer conviction.
Investor sentiment across the broader market reflects this uncertainty, as evidenced by the Fear and Greed Index registering within the 'extreme fear' territory. This cautious positioning is further corroborated by financial data indicating net outflows from spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs); for the week concluding December 20, 2025, these withdrawals totaled $497.05 million, marking the highest weekly withdrawal since November 21. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe suggested that Bitcoin requires establishing firm support around $86,500 before it can gather the necessary momentum for a subsequent upward trajectory. The market is currently behaving within a compressed range, where precise price levels hold greater significance than prevailing narratives, particularly as liquidity remains thin during the holiday season.
Ethereum (ETH) is exhibiting classic volatility compression, trading within a tight range bounded by support near $2,800 and resistance around $3,345, with a psychological pivot point at $3,000. This range has held for nearly a month following a rejection from the $4,800 high, suggesting that energy is being stored for a potentially more significant move when the range eventually resolves. The options market has pinned the 'max pain' threshold for expiring contracts near $3,100, reinforcing this level as a central pivot. On-chain data from Arbitrum shows muted ETH netflows, suggesting that sophisticated decentralized finance (DeFi) participants are holding liquidity rather than aggressively deploying it, viewing the $2,800–$3,000 band as a holding zone.
The altcoin sector presents diverging technical pictures. Shiba Inu (SHIB) remains entrenched in a bearish pattern, trading near multi-month lows around $0.00000723 as December 2025 concludes. Data from the analytics platform CryptoRank indicates SHIB has declined approximately 65.8% since the start of 2025, representing one of its weakest yearly performances since the 2021 rally. The critical support level for SHIB is cited at $0.0000075563, with potential downside risk extending toward $0.0000063511 if this level fails. Conversely, Dogecoin (DOGE) has demonstrated technical resilience by reclaiming the key support level of $0.13, a zone that has historically acted as a significant bounce area. Technical analysis suggests the formation of an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern around $0.13, signaling potential downside exhaustion, with analyst Ali Martinez noting a TD Sequential buy signal on the 3-day chart.
The collective market positioning at the close of 2025 reflects a period where established resistance levels are holding firm, compelling investors to await clearer macroeconomic or liquidity signals before committing to a sustained rally into early 2026. The market's current behavior underscores the importance of technical thresholds as the year concludes, with all eyes on whether these consolidation patterns will resolve upward or downward in the immediate future.
