Cryptocurrency markets remained under pressure on Monday despite U.S. stock futures gaining around 0.25% since midnight UTC.
Bitcoin It traded at $68,710, down 0.1%. Altcoins such as HYPE, ZEC and XMR fell more than 3%.
ether was one of the outliers on Monday, up 0.43% since midnight, as the stock gradually moved back towards $2,000 after selling pressure from trader Garrett Jin triggered a brutal weekend sell-off.
On-chain data shows that over the weekend, one of Jin’s wallets deposited more than $540 million worth of ether to Binance, resulting in a disproportionate increase in sales compared to other exchanges.
This pressure translated into oversold conditions, ultimately setting the stage for a recovery on Monday.
Gold was trading at $5,000 on Monday, down from its January 29 peak of $5,600, but outperforming silver and cryptocurrencies, which have fallen 36% and 21% respectively over the same period.
U.S. markets were closed Monday for a public holiday.
Derivatives positioning
- Cryptocurrency futures markets continue to see capital outflows, with notional open interest (OI), the dollar value of open or active contracts, falling to $98 billion.
- Fully de-risked, the OI of Bitcoin and Ethereum futures fell by 1% and 2.7% respectively in 24 hours. XRP, DOGE, SUI and ADA fell by 6% or more.
- Open interest in futures related to the gold token XAUT rose 8% as traders continued to allocate funds to traditional assets.
- When prices plummeted earlier this month, BTC and ETH’s 30-day implied volatility had surged from 50% annualized to nearly 100%. The reversal signals a significant move away from volatility risks, supporting the case for a price recovery.
- The spread between the Ethereum and Bitcoin Implied Volatility Index has begun to widen, indicating expectations for greater volatility in Ethereum.
- Funding rates for several alternative tokens such as XRP, TRX, DOGE, and SOL remain negative, indicating traders’ preference for bearish short positions. If the market remains resilient, these shorts may be forced to liquidate their positions, potentially causing a “short squeeze” higher.
- CME’s SOL futures are showing an annualized premium close to zero, suggesting buyer pressure is fading quickly. BTC and ETH futures are trading at a small premium.
- On Deribit, someone paid a $3 million premium to buy a Bitcoin call option with a $75,000 strike price. Large flows could represent bullish bets on the market.
- Nonetheless, put options related to BTC and ETH remain more expensive than call options across all time frames, indicating lingering downside concerns.
token talk
- The altcoin market experienced a familiar low-liquidity drop on Sunday before recovering slightly on Monday morning.
- Popular meme coins It fell more than 10% in the past 24 hours but has been stable since midnight UTC, while XRP was up 1% by midnight despite losing 8% in value since Sunday morning.
- Zero Layer (ZRO) continues to lose momentum after a rally in early February, falling more than 34% over the past five days, including a 10% loss over the past 24 hours. Shares plummeted after launching a native blockchain in partnership with Wall Street veterans Citadel Securities and DTCC.
- The Bitcoin-focused CoinDesk 5 (CD5) index is up 0.38% since midnight UTC, while the altcoin-focused CoinDesk 80 (CD80) is down 0.17% over the same period, pointing to relative weakness in altcoins.