Bitcoin pushes above $90,000 as traders eye change in pattern

Particularly hard-hit in 2025's final sessions, crypto-related stocks are bouncing in this year's first trading day.

A Wall Street banks's take on crypto. (Midjourney/Modified by CoinDesk)
Summary
  • Bitcoin rose above $90,000 during U.S. trading hours on Friday.
  • It's a notable change in trend, as crypto prices late in 2025 were typically on the defensive while American stocks traded.
  • Strategy, Coinbase, Hut 8 and Galaxy Digital were among the crypto-related stocks seeing strong gains.

Last year in crypto will be remembered for many things, but one notable trend — particularly late in the year — was the selloffs that occurred nearly every day during U.S. trading hours.

It's not much to go on just yet, but on 2026's first official trading day, a change could be afoot as crypto prices are actually rising while American markets are open.

The action has pushed bitcoin above $90,000, up 2.5% over the past 24 hours. Ether , solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP) are seeing advances closer to 4%.

Assets in general are on the rise in the year's first session, with the Nasdaq higher by 0.6%, led by AI-related chipmakers like Nvidia, Broadcom, Micron and Intel posting 3%-6% gains. Favored commodity play of late, silver has added 3%. Gold and copper are each modestly higher.

Bitcoin miners turned AI infrastructure firms are sharply higher across the board, with Hut 8 (HUT), CleanSpark (CLSK), TeraWulf (WULF) sporting 10% gains, and Cipher Mining (CIFR) and IREN (IREN) each higher by 8%.

Strategy (MSTR) and Coinbase (COIN) are each ahead more than 3%, Galaxy Digital (GLXY) by 7% and Circle Financial (CRCL) by 4.5%.

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Diversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%. GENIUS pushes yield off-chain; TAM grows to $4B in 3 years.

Why it matters:

Diversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%. GENIUS pushes yield off-chain; TAM grows to $4B in 3 years.