Cryptocurrency markets see volatility again on Monday as Bitcoin emerges It surged to $79,480 before quickly falling back to $77,800.
The move began around 23:00 UTC when U.S. stocks and CME Bitcoin futures opened, a period that often sees heightened volatility.
By 05:30 UTC, the price started to fall after failing to break above the $80,000 level, losing 2% in an hour.
Oil prices fell as prices reached their highest level since the ceasefire between the United States and Iran. Brent crude was trading at $107 a barrel after U.S. President Donald Trump canceled plans to send U.S. officials to Pakistan for talks on Saturday.
Ethereum (ETH) is down 2.2% since midnight UTC and was last trading around $2,320, underperforming Bitcoin which is down 1.1% but not as much as several altcoins.
Derivatives positioning
- Nearly $300 million in cryptocurrency futures bets have been liquidated in the past 24 hours. Most of these are bearish bears and will likely bear the brunt of the cryptocurrency’s brief rally to nearly $79,500.
- Open interest (OI) for XRP futures rose by nearly 2.5% in 24 hours. This was the biggest gain among major coins including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana (SOL). OI hit a one-week high of 1.82 billion XRP, while perpetual futures funding rates and OI’s adjusted cumulative volume delta were negative. This combination paints a bearish picture, consistent with the Bitcoin and Ethereum markets.
- However, analysts said that the continued negative Bitcoin financing rates are mainly due to institutions hedging bullish exposure to the relevant market and do not represent outright bearish bets on the market.
- HBAR, CC, XLM and HYPE are other stocks with larger OI gains in the past 24 hours.
- SUI recorded the most negative CVD, indicating continued aggressive selling via market orders. Earlier today, Sui-based DeFi protocol Scallop was hacked, with the perpetrators making off with approximately 150,000 SUI tokens, worth just over $140,000.
- The 30-day Implied Volatility Index for Bitcoin and Ethereum extended its losses, painting a picture of calm markets that support continued price gains for both assets. This is consistent with recent declines in Wall Street’s VIX index, a measure of the S&P 500, and record highs in other key indicators including the Nasdaq.
- On Deribit, Bitcoin and Ethereum options continue to exhibit a put bias across all time frames. Ethereum options expiring in December and next March are significantly less bearish than Bitcoin options.
- Bitcoin’s $80,000 strike call option is the most popular on Deribit, with more than $1.5 billion in notional open interest. The trader gamma here is positive, which means traders (market makers) can sell on a breakout of this level and equally buy on dips, thereby dampening price volatility.
- Talking about flows, Laser Digital said investors favored risk reversals over outright puts. This means that traders prefer options strategies that profit from price movements and differences in option pricing at different strike price levels.
token talk
- While the broader market was volatile on Monday, the altcoin sector was hit hardest by the sell-off at 05:30 UTC.
- Liquidity recollateralized token Lido (LDO) led the way lower, giving up all of Sunday’s gains, down around 17%.
- The Bitcoin-focused CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index is down 1.5% since midnight UTC, while the DeFi Select Index (DFX) is down 2.3%, with only the Smart Contract Platform Select Index (SCPX) performing worse, down 2.5%.
- A handful of coins managed to avoid the sell-off, notably PENGU, JUP, and CHZ, which rose 9.1%, 4%, and 3.1% respectively.
- CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” indicator is at a neutral 39/100, unchanged from last week and well below last month’s high of 51/100.