Monday was one of those days when pretty much everything went down. Cryptocurrencies slumped, stocks retreated, and even precious metals that had been hitting record highs came crashing back to earth. All this happened as traders nervously awaited the Federal Reserve's December meeting minutes, set for release on Tuesday.

Here's where the major cryptocurrencies stood as of 8:30 p.m. ET:

Bitcoin's $90,000 Rejection

Bitcoin had an eventful start to the week. The apex cryptocurrency pushed above $90,000 in what looked like a promising rally, only to reverse course sharply and tumble back to $86,000 in early trading. The drama attracted plenty of attention, with trading volume jumping 187% over the prior 24 hours. That kind of volume spike indicates serious liquidity and trader interest, though not necessarily the kind anyone wants to see when prices are falling.

Ethereum went through a similar ordeal. After breaking above $3,000, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap got knocked back down and spent the rest of the day consolidating around $2,900. Its trading volume more than doubled during the 24-hour period. XRP and Dogecoin also took noticeable hits.

The pain extended to crypto-adjacent stocks. Strategy Inc. (MSTR) closed down 2.15% during regular trading, while Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) fell 1.32%.

According to data from Coinglass, over $270 million worth of leveraged positions were liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the past 24 hours. The bulls took the brunt of it, with roughly $160 million in long bets getting wiped out.

Here's an interesting wrinkle: Bitcoin's open interest actually rose 0.52% during this period. When you see the spot price dropping while open interest in futures or options is climbing, that typically signals a bearish trend or what traders call a "short build-up." Not exactly the setup bulls want to see.

The sentiment indicators weren't encouraging either. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index continued to register "Extreme Fear" across the market.

It wasn't all doom and gloom, though. A few cryptocurrencies managed to swim against the tide:

Overall, the global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.95 trillion, down 1% over the past 24 hours.

Everything Else Fell Too

Cryptocurrencies weren't alone in their misery. The final trading week of 2024 kicked off on a sour note for stocks as well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 249.04 points, or 0.51%, closing at 48,461.93. The S&P 500 slipped 0.35% to settle at 6,905.74, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 0.50% to finish at 23,474.35.

The commodities market delivered perhaps the most dramatic moves of the day. Silver, which had touched record highs above $80 per ounce earlier in the session, plummeted roughly 10%. Gold experienced a similar reversal, pulling back more than 4% from its record high of $4,550 per ounce.

The culprit behind all this market anxiety? Traders are waiting for the Federal Reserve's December meeting minutes, due out Tuesday, hoping to glean insights about future monetary policy direction.

The Case for Bitcoin Optimism

While the price action looked grim, some analysts were seeing green shoots. Michaël van de Poppe, a widely followed cryptocurrency commentator, spotted what he considers a significant bullish divergence between Bitcoin and gold.

"Gold comes down, Bitcoin consolidates and this starts to look better," van de Poppe stated. "On top of that, given that this is a valid bullish divergence, it implies that Bitcoin is likely to outperform Gold in the coming period."

He added: "The big rotation is on the horizon."

The on-chain data seems to support a more optimistic view as well. Darkfrost from CryptoQuant's analytics team pointed out that long-term Bitcoin holders have significantly reduced their selling pressure. In fact, their supply is now growing again, even as short-term holders continue accumulating BTC.

"Historically, such shifts have often preceded the formation of consolidation phases or even bullish recoveries, depending on how the broader trend evolves," the analyst noted.

So while Monday's price action was undeniably ugly, the underlying dynamics might be setting up something more interesting. Whether that "massive bullish divergence" van de Poppe identified actually plays out remains to be seen, but at least some traders are finding reasons to be optimistic beneath the surface turbulence.