Bitcoin’s rally faded on Tuesday as the largest cryptocurrency slipped back toward $90,000, with investors turning cautious ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve interest-rate call.
Momentum that carried markets higher earlier in the week quickly unraveled. Bitcoin was recently trading near $90,150, down from Monday’s peak of $92,350, while the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) slid 2.1% in the past 24 hours, with every constituent posting losses.
The price action mirrors last week’s pattern, when BTC surged from $86,300 to $93,200 between Sunday and Tuesday before retracing to about $88,000 during the latter half of the week.
This time, the impending Fed decision looms large. Markets broadly expect a 25-basis-point cut — typically a supportive backdrop for risk assets because it makes holding dollars less attractive. But with expectations baked in for weeks, traders caution that crypto could fall on the announcement if the move fails to deliver fresh upside drivers.
Derivatives positioning
Despite the looming policy decision, implied volatility remains steady. Bitcoin’s BVIV and ether’s EVIV 30-day volatility indexes showed no shift in sentiment.
Deribit flows revealed heavy interest in June expiries, including deep OTM puts at $20,000 and calls above $200,000 — trades that point to volatility bets rather than directional views. Across BTC and ETH, puts continue to command higher premiums than calls, with recent block activity in bitcoin dominated by risk reversals and put-diagonal spreads. Ether saw flows in call spreads and risk reversals.
Open interest has weakened across most major futures markets, including BTC and ETH. BCH registered an 8% drop in OI, while ZEC moved against the trend, climbing 16% to 2.30 million ZEC — just shy of the record 2.32 million set on Dec. 4.
Token talk
Altcoins extended their retreat as sentiment toward speculative assets deteriorated further. HYPE fell 8.6% over the past day, while STRK, QNT and KAS lost between 5.7% and 6.3%.
CoinMarketCap’s “altcoin season” index has now slid to 18/100, a sharp reversal from its 78/100 reading on Sept. 20.
Bitcoin has declined roughly 20% over the past 90 days, but altcoins have endured deeper losses: more than half of the top-100 tokens by market capitalization are down more than 40% during the same stretch.
