Bitcoin dropped sharply in Asian trading on Monday as the new month opened with fresh volatility in the crypto market. The decline began after a major issue at the DeFi platform Yearn Finance raised new concerns about liquidity.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was last trading 5.3% lower at $86,075.6 by 01:07 ET (06:07 GMT). It briefly fell to $85,638.3 in the past 24 hours and ended November with a monthly decline of more than 16%.
The sell-off started when Yearn Finance announced it was investigating an “incident” involving its yETH liquidity pool. Early reports suggested that a flaw allowed an attacker to mint a massive amount of yETH tokens, flooding the pool with invalid supply.
In simple terms, the exploit let someone create tokens from nothing. This undermined confidence in the pool’s backing assets and pushed traders to exit quickly. The disruption caused immediate volatility across the market, with Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies falling sharply.
Fed rate cut expectations
Bitcoin’s drop came just after a weak November performance. The pressure remained despite improving sentiment around U.S. monetary policy, which had supported risk assets toward the end of last month.
Expectations for a Federal Reserve rate cut in December have risen sharply. Softer U.S. economic data and signs of easing inflation helped fuel those expectations. Traders now see an 87% chance of a 25-basis-point cut at the December 9–10 policy meeting, compared with about 40% a week earlier. While this outlook initially helped stabilize crypto markets, the Yearn Finance incident overshadowed the optimism.
Adding to the broader uncertainty, President Donald Trump said over the weekend that he already knows his choice for the next Federal Reserve Chair. He did not reveal the name, but speculation grew around several candidates. Among them is former White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, who is considered supportive of looser monetary policy.
Crypto prices today: Altcoins retreat
Most major altcoins also posted steep losses on Monday.
Ethereum dropped 5.7% to $2,826.92.
XRP fell 7.3% to $2.03.
Solana slid 7.5%, Cardano declined 8%, and Polygon dropped 6.5%.
Among meme tokens, Dogecoin sank 8%, while $TRUMP fell 5%.
