The total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has dropped by around $42 billion over the last 24-hour period as the prices of major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, Ethereum’s ether, and XRP, see drops between 1% and 2.7%.

Despite the drop, BTC is now trading at $96,000 after rising more than 2.6% from the December low around $92,500 seen after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points, but comments from Chair Jerome Powell suggested a more hawkish stance, suggesting fewer rate cuts would be made next year.

Powell’s comments dampened investor sentiment and affected risk assets across markets, with the stock market’s benchmark index, the S&P 500, plunging by more than 3.5% before recovering, while still being down 2.2% for the week.

Despite the cryptocurrency space’s recovery over the last few days, for the week BTC is still down more than 8%, while ether lost 15% of its value in the same period. Other major altcoins, including DOGE, SOL, XRP, and ADA, lost between 21% and 10% of their value over the past week.

The drawdown saw the cryptocurrency space erase its gains over the past month, which dampened investor sentiment and likely increased profit-taking from investors who benefited from the market’s rally after the U.S. elections.

Moreover, according to data from CoinGlass, over 14 billion worth of bitcoin options are set to expire on Deribit alone, while $1.7 billion worth of options will expire on Binance on the same day.  Similarly, around $3.8 billion worth of ETH options are set to expire on Deribit, along with $400,000 on Binance, on December 27.

The maximum pain point for bitcoin options — the price at which most options contracts would expire worthless — is currently at $84,000. Ether options’ maximum pain point is at $3,400.

These options’ expiry could bring in significant volatility, with traders potentially moving to adjust their positions ahead of the expiry.

The cryptocurrency space may also be seeing a slight downward movement. Over the weekend, the founder of Hex and PulseChain, Richard Heart, was added to Interpol’s Red Notice list over fraud and violent assault charges.

It’s also worth noting that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Bo Hines, a former college football player, as the Executive Director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, which is also known as the “Crypto Council.”

Earlier this month, Trump appointed David Sacks, a former chief operating officer of PayPal, as the White House’s new AI and Cryptocurrency Czar. In a post on the social media platform TruthSocial, Trump said that Sacks would “guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness.”

Despite the drop, recent headlines have revealed Japanese investment firm Metaplanet has made its largest-ever bitcoin purchase, buying an additional 619.7 BTC in a single transaction after the price of the cryptocurrency dropped below the $100,000 level. The purchase was valued at nearly $60 million, when BTC was trading at $96,000.