Bitcoin The rebound to a one-month high of $71,800 effectively removed the risk aversion that had limited gains in U.S. stocks over the past week.
Prices for the largest cryptocurrency stalled at just below $72,000, a level last reached on February 8, before falling back to $65,000.
Precious metals were also higher on Wednesday, with gold and silver up 1.8% and 5.3% respectively since midnight UTC. Bitcoin rose 4.8% over the same period.
The shift to safe-haven assets comes as war in the Middle East continues, with Israel saying it has attacked multiple security headquarters across Iran and Iran attacking U.S. bases in Dubai and Qatar.
Stocks were little changed since midnight, lagging the broader cryptocurrency market.
Derivatives Positioning
- In the past 24 hours, global cryptocurrency futures open interest (OI) increased by 8% to nearly $103 billion. Trading volume also rose, although the increase was less than open interest, suggesting renewed interest in holding positions rather than entering and exiting trades. This adds credibility to the price rebound.
- Futures open interest related to the top 10 coins has increased. DOGE led the way with a 10% gain.
- Permanent funding rates and cumulative volume deltas are both positive for most major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, which is a sign of increasing buying pressure and another sign of an ongoing price recovery.
- Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) 30-day implied volatility indexes remained steady at pre-Middle East conflict levels, suggesting that panic is not setting in.
- On Deribit, BTC and ETH puts are still trading significantly higher than calls, indicating lingering downside concerns.
- The $125,000 strike call, which expires at the end of March, and bets that prices will surge to that level within four weeks, were the most traded options in the past 24 hours. Deribit said most of the activity represented the unwinding of existing short positions rather than new purchases (bullish bets).
- The bulk flow was characterized by demand for Bitcoin call option spreads and call ratio spreads, a sign of mild bullish sentiment. In the case of ETH, traders chased call and put spreads.
token talk
- After nearly a month of consolidation, the altcoin market is starting to show signs of strength. Ethereum (ETH) is up 5% since midnight UTC, with daily trading volume remaining at $25 billion.
- But it’s the less liquid, lower market cap tokens that are outperforming the major coins. KITE, AERO and TAO are all up double digits in the past 24 hours, while the likes of PUMP and DCR are up around 6% since midnight UTC.
- The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has risen to 19/100 from February’s multi-year low of 5/100, indicating that optimism is making its way into the broader cryptocurrency market.
- The CoinDesk Computing Select Index (CPUS) has been the best-performing benchmark over the past 24 hours, rising 7%, while the BTC-weighted CoinDesk 20 (CD20) has gained around 5% over the same period.
