Gate Research: Market Under Pressure and Consolidating | BTC Upside Momentum Constrained by Options Structure

• Market Commentary: On December 15, the overall crypto market continued to experience pressured consolidation, with the Fear Index remaining at 16, within the extreme fear range. BTC retreated from above $90,000, fluctuating at a low level in the $87,500–$88,000 range, with short- and medium-term moving averages maintaining a bearish alignment. ETH also weakened, consolidating near the $3,000 psychological level. Trading volume did not show a significant increase, indicating that the decline was more due to sustained selling pressure and weakening momentum. In the short term, the market remains focused on consolidation and range-bound correction.
• Top Movers: FHE (+95.2%) surged strongly due to multiple catalysts including the rising narrative around fully homomorphic encryption, its partnership with Chainlink to advance FHE privacy bridging, and staking incentives. ICE (+46.08%) was driven by expectations surrounding the ICE → ION token migration and mainnet transition, sparking short-term speculation and arbitrage trading. BAS (+48.02%) saw increased token demand and market attention following the ERC-8004 V1 protocol upgrade, which introduced an AI Agent reputation tracking mechanism.
• Alpha Insights: Structural selling pressure in the options market continues to limit BTC’s upward momentum, with a clear divergence between ETF-driven buying demand and OG holders selling volatility, resulting in a lack of sustained breakout momentum. Meanwhile, Ant International is building an enterprise-level treasury management platform using blockchain, AI, and tokenized deposits, indicating that stablecoins and tokenized funds are rapidly evolving into institutional settlement infrastructure. After the launch of the Stable mainnet, on-chain activity fell short of expectations, highlighting that without clear application scenarios and efficiency advantages, differentiated narratives for stablecoin public chains still struggle to quickly translate into real on-chain demand.

Discover more details today → Gate Research: Market Under Pressure and Consolidating | BTC Upside Momentum Constrained by Options Structure

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Investing in cryptocurrency markets involves high risk. Users are advised to conduct their own research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products before making any investment decisions. Gate is not responsible for any losses or damages arising from such decisions.

Gate Team
December 15, 2025

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