Bitcoin slipped at the start of Monday’s session as the strong altcoin gains seen over the weekend began to fade. BTC was down around 1.1% from midnight UTC, while Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.3%.
Bitcoin traded near $79,300 after losing roughly 1.3% since midnight UTC. The cryptocurrency spent most of the weekend consolidating in a narrow range after failing to break through $81,400.
The weakness in BTC came even as U.S. equity futures moved higher. Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.3% since midnight, extending the divergence between crypto and stocks seen last week. U.S. markets are closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday.
Altcoins accounted for much of the weekend’s upside but have since surrendered some of those gains. TAO, KAS, ICP and TIA were all up more than 12% over the previous 24 hours, although most of their advances came before midnight UTC. Since then, TAO has gained only 0.4%, LINK has risen 1% and NEAR has declined 1.5%.
Derivatives Signal Caution
Positioning in crypto futures has shifted toward the bearish side. Sellers represented 51.6% of taker flow, reversing Friday’s bullish reading. The change could be tied to heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend and renewed concerns about a potential Federal Reserve rate hike.
Bitcoin futures are also experiencing an outflow of capital. Open interest has declined to 670,000 BTC from 709,000 BTC on Friday, reaching its lowest point since March 23, according to CoinGlass. Annualized perpetual funding rates are approaching zero after previously maintaining a bullish bias around 8%-10%.
Ether and Solana derivatives are showing similar signs of weakening positioning.
XRP futures open interest has dropped to 2.29 billion tokens, its lowest level since Aug. 7 and significantly below the mid-month high of 2.78 billion. With capital leaving the market, XRP has continued to trade unevenly between $1.35 and $1.45.
Smaller tokens are showing more resilience. WLD open interest climbed 11% while its spot price jumped 13%, a combination typically viewed as confirmation of an uptrend. WLD also recorded the highest 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta among smaller tokens, suggesting buyers were more aggressive and relied more heavily on market orders.
Among major cryptocurrencies, CVD signals remain mixed. LINK, TRX, CC, SUI and ZEC are posting positive readings, while BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, NEAR, XMR and ADA are on the negative side.
Volatility expectations remain subdued. Thirty-day implied volatility for bitcoin and ether continues to sit near recent lows, indicating that options traders are not anticipating a major near-term volatility spike.
Options positioning also differs between BTC and ETH. For bitcoin, the $78,000 and $80,000 puts expiring Sept. 25 were the most actively traded contracts during the previous 24 hours, while calls occupied three of the remaining top five spots. Puts are commonly used to protect against downside moves. Ether options showed the opposite pattern, with calls dominating trading activity.
Altcoin Performance
Bittensor was the strongest large-cap token over the previous 24 hours, gaining 13% to $266 on $568 million in volume. The rally has slowed considerably since midnight UTC, however, with TAO adding just 0.4%. The token remains 16.4% higher over seven days.
Jupiter was the biggest daily loser, falling 9% to $0.2514 without a clear catalyst. The Solana-based DEX aggregator token has remained under pressure since dropping below the $0.33 support level last November.
Kaspa gained 12.75% over 24 hours and 24.8% over the week, reaching 3.418 cents. But with only $17.6 million in volume against a $947 million market capitalization, the rally appears relatively thin.
Privacy coins were mixed. Dash declined 5.3% since midnight to $67.56 but still holds a 63% weekly gain. Zcash fell 1.74% to $1,206, while Monero remained broadly unchanged.
Arbitrum fell more than 10% over 24 hours to 17.17 cents after nearly doubling during the week. It was the biggest daily decliner among liquid mid-cap tokens.
Chainlink was one of the few major altcoins to maintain upward momentum. LINK gained 1% since midnight UTC to $13.37 and is up 18.6% over the past seven days.
