(Dec 24): Bitcoin is flagging in the last leg of a record-breaking year.

The digital asset changed hands at about US$94,500 (RM424,217.36) as of 5.30am in London (1.30pm Malaysia) on Tuesday, roughly US$14,000 below the all-time peak set on Dec 17. The cryptocurrency has dipped to its 50-day moving average, which some view as a reason for caution.

The test of the closely watched average warrants “a move back to a neutral bias” amid a “consolidation phase” for the token, Fairlead Strategies LLC technical analyst Katie Stockton wrote in a note.

Bitcoin’s pullback reflects expectations of slower Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts in 2025, an outlook that has tempered the speculative ardour generated by president-elect Donald Trump’s push for relaxed US crypto regulations. The Republican has also backed the idea of creating a national Bitcoin stockpile.

In the latest developments in the US, crypto-friendly Senator-elect Bernie Moreno was picked for the chamber’s banking committee. The digital-asset industry anticipates a boom based on the preponderance of crypto proponents in Trump’s incoming administration.

MicroStrategy purchases

Meanwhile, MicroStrategy Inc announced it had purchased an additional US$561 million of Bitcoin at an average price near last week’s record high. That marked the seventh week in a row of purchases for the dot-com-era software maker turned leveraged Bitcoin proxy.

Trump used to be a digital asset sceptic but pivoted as the sector spent big on promoting its interests during US election campaigning. Bitcoin has jumped approximately 40% since he emerged victorious after Election Day on Nov 5 and set about undoing a Biden administration crypto crackdown.

US exchange-traded funds investing directly in Bitcoin have attracted more than US$12 billion of net inflows since Trump became president-elect. But the pace of subscriptions slowed lately, including the highest one-day outflow from the group of one dozen ETFs on Dec 19.

The largest digital asset has rallied 125% so far this year, exceeding the returns from traditional investments such as global stocks and gold. A wider crypto market gauge, encompassing smaller tokens such as Ether and meme-crowd favourite Dogecoin, has also doubled.

Uploaded by Arion Yeow