The crypto market is enjoying a rare period of calm after Tuesday’s selloff took bitcoin and ether to fresh multi-year lows.
BTC recently traded at $76,100 after rising from $72,870, the lowest since November 2024, while ETH is at $2,255 after falling to a level not seen since last May. Both assets in black since midnight UTC if only even.
The altcoin market is mixed, with privacy coins embarking on a much-needed bounce, while Solana-based tokens like PUMP and JUP fell, losing 2% and 2.5% respectively since midnight.
The rebound came after the US House of Representatives passed a government funding package to end a partial shutdown, lifting US stock futures and other global markets. Precious metals bounced back, with gold back above $5,000 and silver at $90 up nearly 6%.
Derivatives positioning
- Traders continue to reduce their risk exposure, driving the cumulative theoretical open interest in all crypto futures down to $105.90 billion, the lowest since last April.
- Crypto futures bets worth $679 million have been liquidated in 24 hours, with bullish bets accounting for most of the figure.
- Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility rose to an annualized 53%, the highest since December 1, indicating increased market fear.
- Open interest (OI) in bitcoin and ether futures fell 0.7% and 2%, respectively. DOGE and the latest outperformer HYPE have experienced greater capital flows.
- OI in LINK futures rose 2% along with positive cumulative volume delta. The combination points to influx of bullish pressure in the market. 24-hour CVD is also positive for TRX, XLM and ZEC.
- Deribit-listed options still show a bias for bitcoin and ether puts, a sign of continued demand for downside protection. Short-dated puts trade at a volatility premium of 10-12 for calls, a sign of peak demand.
- Block flows contained demand for bitcoin and ether put spreads, a bearish strategy.
Token talk
- Derivative exchange tokens HYPE, LIT and ASTER all fell over the past 24 hours as traders rotated back to privacy coins.
- HYPE lost 8.5% but is still up 30% since the turn of the year.
- Monero refuted by 4% stop the bleeding after losing more than 50% of its value since January 14. Zcash is up 3.4% after falling more than 62% from a record high in November.
- Overall, the altcoin market lost ground to bitcoin during the recent dip in the market. Bitcoin dominance is now back above 59% after starting the year at 58.5%.
- The deviation is typical of previous crypto bear markets, characterized by excessive altcoin movements in low liquidity environments.
- Crypto majors SOL, ADA and XRP are all trading at their lowest levels since 2024 after following the entire bullish rallies over the past few years.
