Decred (DCR), a token built for autonomy and decentralized governance, extended gains even in a broader market dominated by Bitcoin Struggling.
The coin has gained 16% in the past 24 hours and is currently trading at $34.58, its highest level since November, CoinDesk data shows. It is among the 100 best-performing coins over the past four weeks, with gains of more than 80% following the financial rule change on February 8.
Bitcoin, for its part, is facing fresh selling pressure and is trading at just around $67,000, having weakened after rebounding to $70,000 on Wednesday. The cryptocurrency fell 2% in 24 hours, with ethereum (ETH), ripple (XRP), solana (SOL) and the CoinDesk 20 index (CD20) notching similar losses.
Market participants remain cautious and continue to seek put options or downside protection for Bitcoin. Deribit said ETF holders and corporate treasuries are buying put options at a $60,000 strike price that will expire in six to 12 months.
Analysts said institutional capital flows are improving but have not yet played a decisive role and traders should avoid taking greater risks.
“Long-term investors may consider staggered accumulation (SIP-style distribution) near support areas rather than one-time deployments in resistance areas,” Vikram Subburaj, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Giottus.com, said in an email to CoinDesk.
Derivatives Positioning
- Cumulative cryptocurrency futures open interest (OI) has fallen back to recent multi-month lows of approximately $93.5 billion. The decline showed that the optimism sparked by Wednesday’s Bitcoin price rally was quickly dissipated.
- Major tokens including Bitcoin and Ethereum have experienced futures outflows as nominal OI fell more than spot prices.
- The market-wide long-short ratio continues to show the dominance of short, or bearish, bets.
- Open interest in Tether Gold (XAUT) fell a further 11%, extending losses seen at the start of the week. Gold-related assets appear to have fallen out of favor of late.
- Most large-cap tokens, including BTC and ETH, are once again experiencing negative perpetual funding rates. This means that bearish behavior is once again dominating the market.
- Participation in CME’s Bitcoin futures is declining, as shown by open interest hitting its lowest level this year.
- On Deribit, one-month Bitcoin puts are still trading at a 7% premium to calls, indicating lingering concerns about further declines in spot prices. The same goes for ether.
- Bitcoin put spreads accounted for 75% of total 24-hour block traffic. In the case of ETH, traders chase put spreads and straddles (volatility strategies).
token talk
The DFINITY Foundation proposes to burn 20% of cloud engine revenue, introducing a deflationary element directly related to network usage of Internet Computers (ICP).
The remaining 80% of revenue will be distributed to node operators, replacing fixed emissions with performance-based incentives. The idea is to make ICP’s token supply more responsive to actual demand.
The price of ICP has increased by approximately 6% in the past 24 hours, from around $2.41 to $2.56. This is down from the high of $2.7 during the same period. The price appears to have been influenced not only by the foundation’s proposal but also by Nvidia’s blowout earnings.
The gains have boosted confidence in AI-related assets, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying AI will only get better.
Often promoted as a decentralized alternative to traditional cloud AI infrastructure, ICP is one of several AI-related tokens such as render (RENDER) and bittensor (TAO) to benefit from renewed investor interest in the industry.
