The crypto market continued to consolidate on Wednesday with crypto majors bitcoin and ether lose less than 1%, while privacy tokens such as up 22%, DASH and XMR extended their market gains.
The total crypto market cap is down 0.6% in the past 24 hours to $3.51 trillion, though it remains higher than on November 7, when it ticked down to as low as $3.32 trillion.
A recent spike in volatility suggests that a void in market liquidity remains after last month’s leverage-induced blowout. This means that a news catalyst can cause significant swings in price action as the market remains coiled.
Eyeballs will be focused on the US, where the government shutdown appears to be entering its final phase. Government resumption could accelerate changes in crypto policy and potentially dictate price action.
Derivatives positioning
By Omkar Godbole
- Volmex’s BVIV index, which measures the 30-day implied volatility in bitcoin, remains elevated in the recent range around 50%. Traders see increased price turbulence in the near term due to thin liquidity, macro issues and put option buyers.
- Futures activity has been mixed with tokens like HYPE, BCH and SOL seeing 1%-2% growth in open interest (OI) in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, OI in ETH, XRP and BNB have decreased while BTC has remained largely unchanged.
- Annualized funding rates for BTC and ETH remain well below the 2025 average, indicating subdued demand for leverage and investor risk appetite.
- On the CME, the annual three-month basis in SOL futures has fallen to 7%, the lowest since July, matching premiums in BTC and ETH futures.
- On Deribit, options linked to BTC and ETH continue to show a bearish outlook in the near term.
- Blockstreams featured a trader selling a BTC put spread on the December expiration, while call options pegged to ether ranging from $4,000 to $7,000 were lifted.
Token talk
By Oliver Knight
- The altcoin market is showing signs of indecision on Wednesday after a volatile period saw prices go from decisive levels of support on Friday to relative safety on Monday.
- The revival of privacy coins remains the main narrative. Decided showed an increase of 22% while dash and Monero also increased solidly over the past 24 hours.
- There was also a notable 20% gain for canton (CC), the native token of the Canton Network blockchain, which is designed for institutions and backed by major banks.
- However, several of the biggest crypto tokens are in the red over the past 24 hours. Ether , and bnb are all down 1%-2%. Solana showed more weakness with a 3.6% move to the downside.
- CoinMarketCap’s average Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 51.26/100, indicating that the market is neither oversold nor overbought and that a catalyst is needed to drive price action.
- The Fear and Greed Index, which analyzes market sentiment, slips back into fearsome territory at 26/100. It has been below 30 just a handful of times over the past year, leading to a number of significant rejections in March.
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