Cryptocurrency volatility cools on Bitcoin on Friday The price has been hovering between $77,500 and $78,500 since midnight UTC.
Price action was muted after Wednesday’s failed attempt to break out near $80,000, although the overall trend remains constructive, with BTC prices continuing to move higher in April and setting a series of higher highs and higher lows.
Ethereum (ETH) was on par with Bitcoin on Friday, down around 0.9% since midnight but remaining within a tight trading range.
U.S. stock index futures were mixed, with Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.5% on strong earnings from technology stocks and S&P 500 futures down 3 basis points.
The U.S. dollar index (DXY) was little changed despite comments from U.S. President Donald Trump confirming that the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has been extended for three weeks. When the ceasefire was first announced on April 16, the dollar fell about 0.5%.
Derivatives positioning
- Bitcoin futures open interest fell by more than 6% in 24 hours to 744.3K BTC, with spot prices retreating to $77,500 after failing to touch $80,000 at the beginning of the week. These moves suggest traders are unwinding leveraged positions and bullish momentum is cooling down in the short term.
- BTC’s 24-hour open interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta has turned negative, meaning sellers’ bids were higher than buyers’ bids during this period. The annualized perpetual funding rate remains slightly negative, indicating the dominance of bearish short positions.
- Futures related to other major cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP), have been trading flat over the past 24 hours.
- However, privacy-focused zcash (ZEC) stands out. Its futures open interest climbed nearly 7.5% to a 10-day high of 1.88 million tokens, while 24-hour trading volume surged 80%.
- The coin also has one of the strongest CVD readings and positive funding rates, indicating continued positive buying interest and overall bullish positioning.
- Despite the pressure on Bitcoin and Ethereum prices, investors may view this as a brief pause in the rally. This is evidenced by the continued decline of Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index BVIV. It has fallen to 42%, the lowest level since January 31. The ETH index has fallen below 65%, which is also the lowest level since February 1.
- On Deribit, Bitcoin and Ethereum risk reversals continue to show a bearish bias across all time frames. It shows market participants continue to hedge on the downside and sell upside volatility through covered calls.
token talk
- The CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) was the only profitable benchmark on Friday, rising less than 0.2%, while the DeFi Select Index (DFX) and Compute Select Index (CPUS) each fell about 1%.
- DeFi token lido (LDO) and The sector led the losses, down between 3% and 3.8% since midnight UTC, as market sentiment continued to be affected after KelpDAO suffered a $290 million exploit over the weekend.
- Privacy coin zcash (ZEC) gave up 0.5% gains on Friday but is still up more than 7% in the past 24 hours, boosted by Thursday’s listing on popular retail trading app Robinhood.
- CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” index rebounded to 39/100 on Friday as investors began taking speculative bets while Bitcoin remained range-bound.
