Bitcoin price tops $90,000 as funding rate jumps

Bitcoin topped $90,000 in Asian trading on Monday. Ether also moved above $3,000 during the session.

Futures activity picked up into year-end. The funding rate for Bitcoin’s perpetual futures – the fee paid between long and short positions – reached the highest since Oct. 18, pointing to increased demand for bullish exposure. Open interest in Bitcoin futures has rebounded from recent lows but remains below October peaks.

The gains follow a quiet December for the token while U.S. stocks reached record levels ahead of Christmas. The broader crypto market is still working back from a selloff that began in October, when about $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated, reducing exposure and curbing risk appetite.

Monday’s uptick “appears somewhat driven by short-term retail traders taking on growing positions in futures,” according to Sebastian Bea, chief investment officer at ReserveOne Inc. He added that open interest is “well below recent peaks that coincided with Bitcoin’s highs in October.”

Bitcoin reached a record of $126,251 on Oct. 6. Despite increased institutional participation and a series of crypto-friendly policy actions under U.S. President Donald Trump, the token is down about 4% so far in 2025.

As we covered previously, despite Bitcoin’s nominal price exceeding $126,000 in October 2025, analysis by Galaxy Digital’s head of research Alex Thorn found the inflation-adjusted peak stayed below $100,000. Using CPI data to restate prices in 2020 dollars, Thorn estimated the October high at about $99,848. He noted the CPI increase since 2020 implies roughly a 20% drop in the dollar’s purchasing power.