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

• 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 BTC$90,146.23 above $90,000, up 2.5% over the past 24 hours. Ether ETH$3,135.77, solana SOL$132.82 and XRP$2.0147 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%.

• KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
• This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
• Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
• Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
• Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.

• ICP rose about 2.7% to roughly $3.00, reclaiming a closely watched psychological level.
• Trading activity increased during the move higher, accompanying the push through resistance near $2.95–$3.00.
• Price has since stabilized just above $3, keeping attention on whether the level can hold as near-term support.

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