Starknet and Arbitrum advanced more than 17% as the 10-year Treasury yield returned below 5%, while 98 of the 100 assets in the CoinDesk 100 traded higher.
Crypto’s rebound following the Federal Reserve’s rate hike broadened on Friday, with DeFi and layer-2 tokens moving to the forefront. The leadership change from Thursday’s privacy and haven-token rally points to a renewed willingness among traders to take on risk.
Bitcoin moved above $78,000 during European hours, gaining 2.1% since midnight UTC and 1.9% over the past 24 hours. BTC remained about 5% below its Sept. 4 peak of $82,284 after roughly two weeks of sideways price action.
The DeFi Select Index was one of the strongest parts of the market, rising 8.3% since midnight UTC and 16% over the last 24 hours. Only two CoinDesk 100 constituents were lower.
A more supportive macro backdrop helped fuel the move. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped below 5%, while Brent crude slipped beneath $103 after reaching $109 earlier in the week. Lower oil prices reduced some of the inflation concerns that had followed the latest rate increase.
Risk appetite was also visible in traditional markets. S&P 500 futures gained 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.6%, while gold advanced 1.1% and silver jumped 2.8%.
Futures Activity Picks Up
Crypto derivatives markets showed evidence of renewed positioning. Aggregate futures open interest rose almost 5% to $141.2 billion, even though daily volume fell 3% to $95 billion.
The taker buy-sell balance remained relatively even, suggesting the increase in capital is coming through broader position building rather than a rush into short-term momentum trades.
Bitcoin futures OI increased to 680,000 BTC from 670,000 BTC since midnight UTC. Rising OI alongside an advancing price is generally associated with the addition of long positions, although the latest increase remains modest.
Current bitcoin OI is also well below the 800,000 BTC record reached earlier this year, indicating that overall market positioning has not yet returned to previous extremes.
On Binance, the top-trader long-short accounts ratio declined to 1.52 from nearly 2 on Wednesday. It nevertheless remained above 1, while the long-short positions ratio stood at 2.36.
The data suggests that the number of large traders holding long positions has decreased, but those remaining bullish have increased the size of their positions.
Uniswap futures saw a sharper increase in activity. UNI open interest climbed to 86.61 million tokens from 76.89 million the previous day, approaching a record high. The move coincided with a 30% increase in UNI’s spot price.
The renewed demand for major DeFi assets comes amid growing optimism over potentially more coordinated regulatory efforts from the SEC and CFTC.
Options Point to Calmer Conditions
The 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta was positive for most major tokens, with GRAM, SHIB, HBAR and BNB among the exceptions. A positive reading indicates stronger aggressive buying through market orders.
Bitcoin volatility also eased. With the Clarity Act vote and the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan meetings now behind traders, bitcoin’s 30-day annualized implied volatility index, BVIV, dropped to 36%.
The measure is around the floor established in May, suggesting expectations for less turbulence in the immediate future.
Deribit data showed bitcoin’s one-week put-call skew moving into positive territory, indicating a relative premium for calls over puts. The one- and two-month skews still showed a modest put bias.
Ether’s one-week skew also pointed toward bullish positioning, although overall options activity remained mixed, with both BTC calls and puts among the most actively traded contracts.
Starknet, Arbitrum and UNI Lead
Uniswap accounted for much of the DeFi Select Index’s gains. UNI rose 13% since midnight UTC and 25% over 24 hours, while Ethena’s ENA gained 9.6% and Lido’s liquid-staking token rose 6.6%.
Layer-2 tokens also posted strong advances. Starknet jumped 18% on the day and 21% over 24 hours, while Arbitrum gained 17% and 25%, respectively. Stacks climbed 9.2%, and Optimism added 8.9%.
Starknet reached its highest level since June 19. Arbitrum traded at 20.9 cents, marking its highest price since January.
Solana gained 4.5% to $106.14, although some of its ecosystem tokens outperformed the underlying asset. Raydium surged 16% to $1.71, while Jito added just 1.6%.
The divergence suggests traders were showing stronger interest in decentralized-exchange activity rather than buying Solana-related tokens across the board.
Zcash, which had led the market’s Thursday gains, slowed on Friday. ZEC traded at $1,490.10, up 1.6% for the day and 7.6% over 24 hours, indicating that most of the recent advance came during Thursday’s session.
Dash declined 0.53%, while World Liberty Financial’s WLFI fell 0.31%. They were the only two CoinDesk 100 constituents in negative territory.
CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index climbed to 44 from Tuesday’s low of 32. The increase suggests speculative activity is broadening as traders move further into higher-risk areas of the crypto market.
