Leading cryptocurrencies traded in the red on Sunday as risk aversion intensified ahead of the holidays.

What Happened: Bitcoin went downhill after being faced with strong resistance from the bears at $97,000. The apex cryptocurrency was down nearly 11% over the week and 2.15% since December began.

Ethereum's move above $3,600 was short-lived as the second-largest cryptocurrency reversed course, falling to an intraday low of $3,220.

Both the blue-chip cryptocurrencies witnessed thin trading volume in the last 24 hours.

Over $276 million was liquidated from the market in the last 24 hours, with long liquidations accounting for $204 million.

Around $635 million in short positions risked liquidation if Bitcoin rebounds to $100,000.

Bitcoin's Open Interest dropped 1.46% in the last 24 hours. However, the percentage of trader accounts on Binance placing long positions on the coin surged to 60%.

The market remained engulfed in the "Greed" sentiment, according to the Cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index.

Top Gainers (24-Hours)

The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $3.27 trillion, following a contraction of 1.53% in the last 24 hours.

Stock futures edged higher Sunday evening. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures rose 86 points, or 0.20%, as of 7:45 p.m. EDT.  Futures tied to the S&P 500 gained 0.22%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures lifted 0.27%.

Stocks are coming off a slump that saw blue-chip averages record their biggest losing spree in years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.33% last week, witnessing a 10-day losing streak, the worst since 1974. The S&P 500 also lost 2.30% last week, precipitated by the Federal Reserve's hawkish outlook for 2025.

Markets will be shut on Christmas Day..

Analyst Notes: Widely followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader Ali Martinez flagged a buy signal for Bitcoin based on the reading of the TD Sequential indicator.

For the curious, the TD Sequential indicator is a technical analysis tool that helps traders identify potential price reversals and exhaustion patterns.

Furthermore, analysis of the Mayer Multiple indicator hinted that the leading cryptocurrency would hit a market top above $168,500.

Mayer Multiple is an oscillator calculated as the ratio between Bitcoin's price, and the 200-day moving average.

Widely-followed cryptocurrency analyst Karan Singh Arora urged his followers not to open new longs, adding that if Bitcoin fails to close above $99,000, it may fall lower.

"We need to regain at least $95800 or else we are going for $91,945 – $90,500 zone," Arora remarked.