Crypto markets were largely unchanged over the past 24 hours, with bitcoin holding steady after retreating from last week’s post-Federal Reserve highs, while altcoins continued to underperform amid lingering risk-off sentiment.
The market opened the week with muted price action, mirroring the close of last week, as overall sentiment slipped back into the “extreme fear” zone.
Bitcoin (BTC) is trading near $89,900, recovering modestly from Sunday’s low around $88,000 but still showing signs of weakness after peaking near $94,300 following the Fed’s 25-basis-point rate cut.
Activity across altcoins remains subdued. Ether (ETH) and TRX posted gains of less than 2% over the past day, while more than half of the top 100 tokens recorded losses, underscoring fading volatility and limited risk appetite.
Market benchmarks offered a mixed signal. The CoinDesk 20 (CD20) Index edged higher by 0.16%, while the broader CoinDesk 80 (CD80) fell 0.77%, highlighting continued softness among smaller, higher-risk assets.
Derivatives positioning
Open interest rose in DOGE, HYPE, SOL and ETH over the past 24 hours, while ZEC, BNB, AAVE, TRX and several smaller tokens saw capital exit. Bitcoin open interest remained largely unchanged.
DOGE futures open interest climbed to 10.80 billion DOGE, its highest level since Nov. 20, alongside moderately positive funding rates—pointing to bullish positioning.
XRP open interest increased by more than 3% as the token tests the long-standing $2 support level. Funding rates remain near neutral, though a breakdown could draw in short sellers and push rates into negative territory.
Negative funding rates in XLM, MNT and HBAR suggest shorts remain dominant in those markets. On Deribit, bitcoin’s front-end put skew has eased, while ether’s front-end puts remain more expensive, indicating a bearish bias in the ETH/BTC pair. Block flows featured BTC calendar spreads and ETH put spreads.
Token talk
Altcoins broadly lagged bitcoin over the past day, with tokens such as AERO, TAO, ZEC and SKY sliding as much as 4.5%.
Liquid staking tokens were among the few bright spots. Lido (LDO) and ETHFI gained around 2%, with ETHFI supported by a promotional campaign offering 10% ETH cashback for ether.fi card users.
Despite the modest rebound, CoinMarketCap’s “altcoin season” index stands at 19 out of 100, only slightly above last week’s low of 16 and far below September’s peak of 78, signaling that investors continue to favor bitcoin and other large-cap tokens over more speculative assets.
CoinGlass data reinforces this shift, showing bitcoin dominance has risen steadily in recent months, climbing from 56.8% in September to 58.4%, even as thousands of new tokens have entered the market.
