The brief rally fueled by hopes of a deal over the Strait of Hormuz has faded after President Donald Trump demanded five decades of compensation from Iran. Brent crude moved back toward $89 a barrel, while crypto and equity markets stayed subdued ahead of Wednesday’s U.S. inflation report.
The crypto market was largely flat Tuesday after prices weakened overnight as expectations for a near-term Hormuz agreement diminished.
Trump’s demand for 50 years of compensation from Iran before negotiations can proceed reduced hopes for a quick resolution. Brent crude climbed to $89.08, more than 12% above its low from last week.
Bitcoin was up 0.26% from midnight UTC but remained 1.68% lower over the previous 24 hours. Ether declined 2.4% over the same period, despite outperforming BTC during the UTC session. U.S. stock futures were also little changed as traders focused on Wednesday’s CPI figures for clues about the Federal Reserve’s next policy moves.
Bitcoin faced another source of pressure after Strategy sold 1,690 BTC on Monday. The transaction represented the company’s fourth consecutive weekly reduction, and it has not purchased additional bitcoin since June.
Futures and Options Activity
Crypto futures volume surged 51% in 24 hours to $143.15 billion, while total open interest remained around $115.6 billion. The combination suggests increased trading activity without a major expansion in overall market positioning.
The taker long-short ratio also returned to neutral territory. Long and short market orders each accounted for close to half of trading volume, compared with a bullish imbalance one day earlier.
XRP recorded the largest increase in open interest, with active futures contracts rising 14% to 2.72 billion tokens. That is the highest level since October. The token remains vulnerable to a break below $1, a level it has not lost since 2024.
Negative 24-hour cumulative volume delta for XRP shows that aggressive sellers are currently more active than buyers. Market-order selling has outweighed passive limit buying, although funding rates remain modestly positive.
LINK, ETH and HBAR were among the other tokens with rising open interest. CC, ZEC and AVAX recorded the largest declines.
Selling pressure was visible across much of the market, with most major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, posting negative 24-hour CVD readings. LINK and TRX were among the few exceptions.
Funding rates showed a wide split between assets. Monero had an annualized rate of roughly 39%, suggesting strong bullish positioning, while CC recorded about -14%, reflecting a heavy bearish bias.
Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility gauge, BVIV, also moved higher. The index jumped nearly 5% to 38.64% after breaking above its long-standing floor near 36% as BTC slipped below $64,000.
Options positioning meanwhile became less supportive. One-week call skew for BTC and ETH on Deribit weakened and could turn negative, which would indicate growing demand for downside protection if Wednesday’s CPI data comes in hotter than expected.
Short-dated implied volatility remains relatively compressed for both Bitcoin and ether, indicating that traders have not yet priced in substantial turbulence around the inflation release.
Upside contracts continued to attract significant activity, with the BTC $70,000 call expiring Sept. 25 and the ETH $2,000 call with the same expiration among the most actively traded options over 24 hours.
Biggest Token Movers
CRV from Curve DAO led the day’s gains, rising 9.49% over 24 hours and extending its weekly increase to 27.29%. The DeFi token has remained relatively strong despite weakness across the wider market.
Lighter’s LIT climbed 6.40% over 24 hours to around $2.43 and added 2.26% since midnight. The token is now nearly 20% higher over seven days as it continues recovering from its July decline.
LINK rose 2.59% since midnight and is up 4.40% on the week. Its gains coincide with growing interest in blockchain oracle infrastructure and the broader expansion of tokenized real-world assets.
ZEC was among the biggest losers, dropping 1.97% since midnight to about $486. The decline came after several weeks of strong performance. Privacy-focused assets also weakened, with Monero down 0.72%.
Altcoin sentiment improved slightly, with CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season index rising to 41 from Monday’s 37. The increase suggests some traders are returning to tokens that have recently been heavily sold.
