Bitcoin Rebounded Above $3,600 as Crypto Markets Attempted a Recovery

Bitcoin and most other large cryptocurrency assets rebounded on December 9, 2018, interrupting the market-wide losses that had pushed bitcoin toward $3,300 during the preceding sessions.

CoinMarketCap’s December 9 historical snapshot listed bitcoin at $3,614.23, up 4.28% over its trailing 24-hour window. Kraken’s exchange-specific daily report placed bitcoin at $3,562 and showed a larger 6.94% increase. The figures are not interchangeable: CoinMarketCap aggregated listed markets, while Kraken measured activity on its own venue across several fiat and crypto trading pairs.

Both records nevertheless support the same bounded conclusion. December 9 produced a broad recovery attempt, not merely an isolated change on one bitcoin market.

Gains spread beyond bitcoin

Kraken reported ether at $94, up 9.75%, XRP at $0.3107, up 5.41%, and bitcoin cash at $107, up 9.22%. EOS was the venue’s strongest displayed large-asset performer at $2.02 and an 18.8% gain. Dash rose 16.2%, while litecoin, stellar, monero and zcash each advanced between 7.55% and 9.91% on Kraken’s stated daily measurements.

CoinMarketCap’s snapshot also showed widespread gains, although generally smaller ones. Ether was $95.14 and up 3.61% over 24 hours; XRP gained 2.25% to $0.3134; bitcoin cash rose 5.99% to $109.62; and EOS advanced 11.04% to $2.0322. Bitcoin SV was the only asset among CoinMarketCap’s ten largest by reported capitalization with a negative 24-hour change, declining 1.09%.

Kraken recorded $120 million of turnover across all markets in its report. Bitcoin accounted for $60.2 million and ether for $38.8 million. Coinburn calculates that those two assets supplied $99 million, or 82.5%, of the venue’s reported total. That calculation describes Kraken only; it is not a measure of global cryptocurrency trading.

A rebound inside a damaged market

The December 9 advance mattered because it tested whether buyers would respond after the market’s latest breakdown. CoinMarketCap still showed bitcoin down 12.19% over seven days despite the daily gain. Ether remained down 17.84%, bitcoin cash 35.89%, EOS 29.54% and litecoin 22.52% over the provider’s seven-day windows.

Those losses make “recovery attempt” more accurate than “reversal.” The exact-date data establish that prices rose across much of the market, but they do not establish a durable bottom or identify why participants bought. No cited record isolates a news announcement, liquidation cycle, short covering or fundamental change as the cause.

The divergence between providers is itself informative. Kraken showed bitcoin gaining 6.94%, versus CoinMarketCap’s 4.28%; ether gained 9.75% on Kraken’s report, versus 3.61% in the aggregate snapshot. Cryptocurrency traded continuously without a consolidated closing auction, and each provider applied its own observation time, venue coverage and calculation method. Reported volumes also depended on exchange reporting and could not be treated as audited global turnover.

Later confirmation, not event-day knowledge

A report published on December 10, 2018 described bitcoin’s December 9 move from roughly $3,400 to above $3,600, then documented that the gains were already fading. That later observation confirms the short duration of the rebound but does not alter what the December 9 records established: a substantial, broad-based advance inside a market that remained deeply negative over the week.