Crypto majors bitcoin and ether (ETH) enters the weekend after being confined to a tight trading range over the past four days, with BTC trapped between $76,100 and $78,000.
The lack of volatility has led to small pockets of the altcoin market taking advantage of the speculative nature of crypto investors. The AI sector was the beneficiary of such speculation on Friday, as NEAR surged 28.5%, while FET gained 11.4% in the past 24 hours.
Conversely, privacy coins DASH, ZEC and XMR saw a wave of selling pressure on Friday that eroded much of their early week rally, indicating that sector rotation is in full effect.
Brent crude fell to $102 a barrel. barrel Friday, down from $112 seen earlier in the week, as speculation swirls around a potential peace deal between Iran and the U.S.
US stocks responded well to the drop in oil; The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high on Friday, while the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 are now up 3% and 1.7%, respectively, from Tuesday’s lows, suggesting a return to risk-on sentiment.
Derivatives positioning
- Volume in the crypto futures market rose modestly by 1% to $160 billion in the last 24 hours, while nominal open interest (OI) remained steady near $128 billion. Liquidations fell sharply by 26% to $200 million. This setup reflects a quieter market with reduced foreclosures, although volume growth remains relatively muted.
- Today’s standout token is Near Protocol’s NEAR, which is up over 25%. With the price increase, OI in futures linked to the token has risen to an all-time high of 282.53 million tokens. The OI-adjusted 24-hour cumulative volume delta is positive, a sign of aggressive buying on market orders rather than passive limit orders. This validates the price increase. And last but not least, funding rates remain mildly positive, suggesting healthy leverage ratios and no overheating.
- Markets linked to TRX and LINK show a similar bullish profile, characterized by OI growth, positive CVDs and positive funding rates.
- The Bitcoin market offers some excitement, with OI steady in the recent 720K BTC to 750K BTC range. The same can be said about ether.
- Both BTC and ETH’s annualized 30-day implied volatility index continues to slide. It is a sign of relentless volatility when selling via options, mostly call overwriting.
- On Deribit, bitcoin strikes from $71,000 to $77,000 dominate the 24-hour volume ranking. Corresponding volume concentration is seen in ether puts. A put option provides protection against price losses in the underlying asset.
Token talk
- CoinDesk’s DeFi Select Index (DFX) rose 1.1% on Friday, outperforming the CoinDesk Smart Contract Platform Select Capped Index (SCPXC), up just 0.3%, and the CoinDesk Memecoin Select Index (CDMEME), after it fell 1%.
- The altcoin market was generally a mixed bag on Friday; XRP, SOL and ETH all lost ground alongside the privacy coin sector, while the likes of HYPE and ATOM continue to show relative strength, with the latter up 5% since midnight UTC.
- HYPE, the native sign of perpetual exchange of HyperLiquid, has been its own beast this week – surging to all-time highs after surging around 60% since Tuesday.
- The move comes alongside heavy short interest and a wave of liquidations coupled with institutional participation following the launch of spot ETFs in the US this month.
- CoinMarketCap’s “altcoin season” indicator rose from 31/100 to 38/100 this week, supported by HYPE’s strong performance.
