Crypto prices again muted as gold surges to new record, U.S. stocks advance

Bitcoins Crypto prices again muted as gold surges to new record, U.S. stocks advance

Bitcoins Bitcoin for the moment was unable to hold the $90,000 level reached prior to the U.S. market open.

Dec 22, 2025, 5:45 p.m.

Crypto bulls are again watching from the sidelines as the debasement trade continues and risk assets generally move broadly higher during the U.S. trading session.

The standout performer on Monday is gold, which has surged 2% to a new record high of $4,475 per ounce. Silver is higher by 1.6% and earlier hit its own fresh record at just below $70 per ounce.

Just after the noon hour on the east coast, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 are each ahead by 0.6% and the U.S. dollar index is lower by 0.3%.

After racing above $90,000 during the Asian/European trading sessions, bitcoin BTC$87,617.03 has pulled back closer to $89,000, still ahead over the past 24 hours, but continuing to underperform most major asset classes.

Ether ETH$2,978.37, solana SOL$124.42 and XRP$1.8449 also in the green on Monday, but they too have pulled back from highs hit prior to the U.S. opening for trade.

AI trade remains strong

A check of crypto-related stocks shows those bitcoin miners that have pivoted to business models to a focus on AI infrastructure and high-performance computing strongly outperforming on Monday.

Helping the mood in that sector was a deal for Alphabet (GOOG) to acquire AI infrastructure start-up Intersect for $4.75 billion. “The acquisition,” said Alphabet, “will enable more data center and generation capacity to come online, faster, while accelerating energy development and innovation.”

Hut 8 (HUT) is leading gainers with an advance of 17.5%. IREN (IREN), Cipher Mining (CIFR) and Bitfarms (BITF) are posting gains of 5%-10%.

In other crypto sectors, Circle (CRCL), Coinbase (COIN), Bullish (BLSH) and Galaxy Digital (GLXY) are ahead 2%-4%, and bitcoin treasury bellwether Strategy (MSTR) is up just 0.3%.

Bitcoin may not rally until gold cools

“I reiterate the point that bitcoin and crypto are unlikely to shine until this bull market in precious metals comes to a pause,” ByteTree analysts, led by Charlie Morris and Shehriyar Ali, said in a Monday report.

They pointed out that despite the current trends bitcoin have outperformed the metals sector over the past few years.

However, silver with its ongoing parabolic rally has now nearly matched BTC’s return over the past eight years.

Read more: Why Gold Is Winning Over Bitcoin in 2025: Liquidity, Trade, and Trust

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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.

What to know:

• 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.

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