Bitcoin and Ethereum traded slightly higher on Thursday as the broader crypto market paused after the previous day’s breakout, with traders weighing macro developments, derivatives activity and whether bitcoin can sustain momentum toward $80,000.
Both assets posted gains of less than 1% as investors consolidated positions following Wednesday’s rally. Bitcoin has managed to hold above the $70,000 level—a price area that had previously capped several advances—but the market has yet to see the stronger push toward $80,000 that some analysts expected.
Global equities received a boost after reports that Iran had quietly contacted the United States to explore a possible deal to end the conflict in exchange for limiting its missile production. The development eased some geopolitical concerns and helped risk assets stabilize.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) moved lower following the news but remains roughly 3.5% higher since late January as traders reassess potential policy moves by the Federal Reserve. Market participants are also watching the Strait of Hormuz closely, as any disruption there could increase inflation pressures and potentially force the Fed to keep interest rates elevated.
Bitcoin has historically shown an inverse relationship with the U.S. dollar, often gaining when the currency weakens and losing momentum when it strengthens.
Derivatives activity
In the derivatives market, bitcoin futures open interest rose to about 680,000 BTC, marking the highest level in nearly two weeks and reinforcing the recent rise in spot prices.
Open interest in ether futures climbed to approximately 13.41 million ETH, its highest level since Jan. 31. Activity in XRP futures remains muted, with open interest holding below 1.7 billion tokens. A similar pattern is visible in futures tied to Solana’s SOL.
At the same time, open interest in tokenized gold futures—such as Tether Gold and PAX Gold—continues to decline as cryptocurrencies rally, suggesting that investors may be rotating capital into major digital assets as the gold rally cools.
Meanwhile, futures activity tied to privacy-focused Zcash is beginning to recover, ending a two-month downtrend in open interest.
Funding rates for perpetual futures tied to bitcoin and ether remain slightly positive on an annualized basis, indicating a modest bullish bias among traders. However, funding rates for XRP and SOL remain slightly negative.
Volatility indicators also point to a relatively stable market environment. The 30-day implied volatility indexes for bitcoin and ether remain within recent ranges, while the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) has retreated to around 21% after reaching roughly 28% earlier in the week.
Options activity on Deribit shows that bearish put skews for bitcoin and ether have eased somewhat, though demand for higher-strike call options—bets on further upside—has increased. Large options trades have also highlighted interest in call calendar diagonal spreads for both assets.
Token developments
Elsewhere in the market, the layer-1 project MANTRA completed a token migration and rebranding effort, replacing the OM ticker with MANTRA and implementing a 1-for-4 redenomination. The move helped push the token’s price up about 25% over the past 24 hours.
Privacy tokens had a challenging February, with Zcash, Dash and Monero all experiencing steep corrections after a strong start to the year. However, monero has recently begun to buck that trend, rising about 5.2% since midnight UTC and roughly 9.8% over the past week.
Large-cap cryptocurrencies led market gains over the past day. The CoinDesk 5 Index and CoinDesk 10 Index both climbed around 3.1%. By comparison, the CoinDesk DeFi Select Index and CoinDesk Computing Select Index posted more modest increases of about 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively.
Analysts say that if bitcoin can continue advancing toward the $80,000 level and consolidate at higher prices, some of the profits from major cryptocurrencies could eventually rotate into more speculative altcoins. For now, however, the market appears to be taking a cautious pause after its recent breakout.
