Business
Explained: Why Bitcoin is sliding — and why the pain may not be over – The Times of India
Bitcoin’s steep fall over the past few weeks has raised fears of a deeper slump, with Deutsche Bank outlining five major factors behind the decline.Analysts at the bank said they are unsure whether the cryptocurrency will stabilise soon, warning that the latest downturn is different from earlier crashes dominated by retail speculation.
Risk-off mood hits crypto
According to Decrypt, Deutsche Bank analysts said Bitcoin has been moving in line with tech stocks as global risk appetite weakens. Concerns around the broader macro environment, Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade actions, and doubts over inflated AI valuations have dragged down risk assets generally — Bitcoin included.
Hawkish Fed pressures prices
Bitcoin historically fares better when interest rates are low. However, the US Federal Reserve’s mixed messaging on whether it will cut rates again in December has hurt sentiment. This uncertainty has weighed on Bitcoin’s performance, reinforcing its sensitivity to monetary policy shifts.
Stalled Clarity Act slows adoption
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (Genius) Act, passed earlier this year, boosted optimism around regulation. However, the follow-up Clarity Act, which aims to define market structure rules, has hit a wall. As per Decrypt, the delay has dampened institutional confidence and slowed adoption.
Institutional pullback after major liquidations
Institutional investors have been withdrawing following the massive $19 billion liquidation event on 10 October. As per Decrypt, Deutsche Bank analysts said that falling liquidity has made any price recovery harder. Many futures traders also exited positions, intensifying volatility.
Long-term holders cash in
After Bitcoin crossed $126,000 last month, long-time holders took profits. Around 800,000 BTC were sold in just one month — the biggest such offload since January 2024. This added further downward pressure.
A $1 trillion market wipeout
Bitcoin plunged from above $126,000 in early October to below $82,200 before recovering to around $88,500. Despite the mild rebound, nearly $5 billion has exited Bitcoin-linked investment products, and the overall crypto market cap has dropped by 24% — wiping out $1 trillion.Although often compared to gold or US treasuries, Bitcoin has behaved “more like a high-growth tech stock,” according to Deutsche Bank. The bank’s analysts wrote that Bitcoin’s correlation with the Nasdaq 100 stands at 46% this year, while its link with the S&P 500 is 42% — levels similar to the Covid-19 crisis in 2022, as per Decrypt. Gold and treasuries, meanwhile, have outperformed it.Analysts cited comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Governor Lisa Cook, which cast doubt on expectations of a December rate cut. This uncertainty could cause further weakness, with Bitcoin’s correlation with Fed rates at -13% this year.
Liquidity shock continues to hurt the market
The October crash created a liquidity vacuum that still hasn’t fully healed. Deutsche Bank, citing Kaiko data, noted that major exchanges saw order books collapse, with “ask-side liquidity effectively absent for several minutes.” This scared off market makers and deepened the price drop. The bank said the resulting negative loop between shrinking liquidity and falling prices continues to weigh on Bitcoin.
Business
Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex, Nifty Hit Record Highs; Bank Nifty Climbs 60,000 For The First Time
Stock Market News Live Updates: Indian equity benchmarks opened with a strong gap-up on Monday, December 1, touching fresh record highs, buoyed by a sharp acceleration in Q2FY26 GDP growth to a six-quarter peak of 8.2%. Positive cues from Asian markets further lifted investor sentiment.
The BSE Sensex was trading at 85,994, up 288 points or 0.34%, after touching an all-time high of 86,159 in early deals. The Nifty 50 stood at 26,290, higher by 87 points or 0.33%, after scaling a record intraday high of 26,325.8.
Broader markets also saw gains, with the Midcap index rising 0.27% and the Smallcap index advancing 0.52%.
On the sectoral front, the Nifty Bank hit a historic milestone by crossing the 60,000 mark for the first time, gaining 0.4% to touch a fresh peak of 60,114.05.
Meanwhile, the Metal and PSU Bank indices climbed 0.8% each in early trade.
Global cues
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Monday as traders assessed fresh Chinese manufacturing data and increasingly priced in the likelihood of a US Federal Reserve rate cut later this month.
According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets are now assigning an 87.4 per cent probability to a rate cut at the Fed’s December 10 meeting.
China’s factory activity unexpectedly slipped back into contraction in November, with the RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI by S&P Global easing to 49.9, below expectations of 50.5, as weak domestic demand persisted.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.6 per cent, while the broader Topix declined 0.86 per cent. In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 0.30 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.31 per cent.
US stock futures were steady in early Asian trade after a positive week on Wall Street. On Friday, in a shortened post-Thanksgiving session, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.65 per cent to 23,365.69, its fifth consecutive day of gains.
The S&P 500 rose 0.54 per cent to 6,849.09, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 289.30 points, or 0.61 per cent, to close at 47,716.42.
Osmond ChiaBusiness reporter
Getty ImagesSouth Korea’s largest online retailer, Coupang, has apologised for a massive data breach potentially involving nearly 34 million local customer accounts.
The country’s internet authority said that it is investigating the breach and that details from the millions of accounts have likely been exposed.
Coupang is often described as South Korea’s equivalent of Amazon.com. The breach marks the latest in a series of data leaks at major firms in the country, including its telecommunications giant, SK Telecom.
Coupang told the BBC it became aware of the unauthorised access of personal data of about 4,500 customer accounts on 18 November and immediately reported it to the authorities.
But later checks found that some 33.7 million customer accounts – all in South Korea – were likely exposed, said Coupang, adding that the breach is believed to have begun as early as June through a server based overseas.
The exposed data is limited to name, email address, phone number, shipping address and some order histories, Coupang said.
No credit card information or login credentials were leaked. Those details remain securely protected and no action is required from Coupang users at this point, the firm added.
The number of accounts affected by the incident represents more than half of South Korea’s roughly-52 million population.
Coupang, which is founded in South Korea and headquartered in the US, said recently that it had nearly 25 million active users.
Coupang apologised to its customers and warned them to stay alert to scams impersonating the company.
The firm did not give details on who is behind the breach.
South Korean media outlets reported on Sunday that a former Coupang employee from China was suspected of being behind the breach.
The authorities are assessing the scale of the breach as well as whether Coupang had broken any data protection safety rules, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said in a statement.
“As the breach involves the contact details and addresses of a large number of citizens, the Commission plans to conduct a swift investigation and impose strict sanctions if it finds a violation of the duty to implement safety measures under the Protection Act.”
The incident marks the latest in a series of breaches affecting major South Korean companies this year, despite the country’s reputation for stringent data privacy rules.
SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, was fined nearly $100m (£76m) over a data breach involving more than 20 million subscribers.
In September, Lotte Cards also said the data of nearly three million customers was leaked after a cyber-attack on the credit card firm.
Agency workers hired to cover Birmingham bin strikers will join them on picket lines on Monday, a union has said.
A rally will be held by Unite The Union at Smithfield Depot on Pershore Street, Birmingham, on Monday morning to mark the first day of strike action by agency refuse workers.
Unite said the Job & Talent agency workers had voted in favour of strike action “over bullying, harassment and the threat of blacklisting at the council’s refuse department two weeks ago”.
The union said the number of agency workers who will join the strike action is “growing daily”.
Strikes by directly-employed bin workers, which have been running since January, could continue beyond May’s local elections.
The directly-employed bin workers voted in favour of extending their industrial action mandate earlier this month.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Birmingham council will only resolve this dispute when it stops the appalling treatment of its workforce.
“Agency workers have now joined with directly-employed staff to stand up against the massive injustices done to them.
“Instead of wasting millions more of council taxpayers’ money fighting a dispute it could settle justly for a fraction of the cost, the council needs to return to talks with Unite and put forward a fair deal for all bin workers.
“Strikes will not end until it does.”
Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex, Nifty Hit Record Highs; Bank Nifty Climbs 60,000 For The First Time
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