Cryptocurrency markets are enjoying a rare period of calm after Tuesday’s Bitcoin selloff and ether A multi-year low.
BTC was most recently trading at $76,100, bouncing off its lowest level since November 2024 at $72,870, while ETH is currently trading at $2,255 after falling to its lowest level since May last year. Both assets have been in the black since midnight UTC, if only that.
The altcoin market has been mixed, with privacy coins embarking on a much-needed rebound, while Solana-based tokens such as PUMP and JUP are down, down 2% and 2.5% respectively since midnight.
U.S. stock futures and other global markets were boosted by an economic recovery after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a government financing package to end the partial shutdown. Precious metals rebounded, with gold returning above $5,000 and silver rising nearly 6% to $90.
Derivatives Positioning
- Traders continued to reduce risk exposure, pushing cumulative notional open interest across all cryptocurrency futures to $105.9 billion, the lowest level since April last year.
- Cryptocurrency futures bets worth $679 million were cleared within 24 hours, with bullish trades accounting for the majority.
- Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility climbed to an annualized 53%, the highest level since December 1, indicating increasing market panic.
- Open interest (OI) for Bitcoin and Ethereum futures fell by 0.7% and 2% respectively. DOGE and HYPE, which has outperformed recently, have seen larger capital outflows.
- The OI of LINK futures increased by 2%, while the cumulative volume increase was positive. These combinations indicate that bullish pressure is pouring into the market. 24-hour CVD was also positive for TRX, XLM, and ZEC.
- Options listed on Deribit still show a preference for Bitcoin and Ethereum puts, a sign of continued demand for downside protection. Short-term puts are trading with 10-12 times higher volatility than calls, a sign of peak fear.
- The block flow was characterized by demand for Bitcoin and Ethereum put spreads, a bearish strategy.
token talk
- Derivatives exchange tokens HYPE, LIT and ASTER have all fallen in the past 24 hours as traders pivot back to privacy coins.
- HYPE fell 8.5% but is still up 30% since the beginning of the year.
- Monero After losing more than 50% in value since January 14, a 4% rebound stopped the bleeding. Zcash The index rose 3.4% after falling more than 62% from November’s all-time high.
- Generally speaking, the altcoin market has lost ground to Bitcoin during the recent market rout. Bitcoin’s dominance is now back above 59%, down from 58.5% at the start of the year.
- This divergence is typical of previous cryptocurrency bear markets, which were characterized by exaggerated altcoin moves in low-liquidity environments.
- Cryptocurrency majors SOL, ADA, and XRP are all trading at their lowest levels since 2024, retracing the entire bull market rally of the past few years.
