Bitcoin dropped to roughly $83,000 on Monday as the crypto market reversed much of Friday’s advance. BTC was down 1.7% from midnight UTC and 2.1% over the previous 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 100 index declined 2.6% to 1,874.56, with 91 of its 100 constituents posting losses.
Several of Friday’s biggest winners suffered the sharpest declines. Quant (QNT) fell 16% since midnight after jumping 39% over the prior 24 hours. The Graph (GRT) lost 12% after gaining 14%, while Ondo (ONDO) also dropped 12%.
The sectors that had driven Friday’s gains were also among Monday’s weakest performers. The DeFi Select Index (DFX) fell 6.4% on the day and 7.3% over 24 hours, while the CoinDesk Computing Index (CPUS) declined 3.2% and 5.0%, respectively.
Oil Surge Adds to Risk-Off Pressure
The renewed weakness came as crude prices moved higher following developments involving Iran.
President Donald Trump rejected Tehran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s proposal included releasing frozen Iranian assets, removing oil-related sanctions and ending the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Brent crude climbed 3.2% to $100.83, moving back above $100 and reversing Friday’s move below the threshold.
The pressure extended across traditional markets. Gold fell 3.3% to $4,144, while silver declined 5.1% to $61. S&P 500 futures slipped 0.44%, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 0.95%. The dollar index edged 0.06% higher to 101.09.
Open Interest Continues to Shrink
Crypto derivatives data pointed to traders reducing existing positions rather than adding fresh leverage.
Total crypto trading volume jumped 70% over 24 hours to $172 billion, while aggregate open interest fell 3% to $150 billion. The combination of higher volume and lower open interest suggests increased position closures.
The 24-hour taker long/short ratio was 46.9% to 53.1% at 09:50 UTC, giving sellers a modest advantage in aggressive market orders.
Bitcoin futures open interest declined to 650,000 BTC, its lowest point since March. Funding rates were negative across major exchanges, indicating that the positions remaining in the market were tilted bearish.
ETH and SOL See Similar Derivatives Trends
Ether open interest dropped to 12.85 million ETH, down from 13.95 million on July 1 and a late-May peak above 15.65 million.
ETH has nevertheless gained 68% since July 1, suggesting that spot buying rather than increasing leverage has driven much of the advance. Solana futures showed a similar decline in open interest.
XRP moved in the opposite direction, with open interest reaching 2.46 billion XRP earlier Monday, a four-week high, before easing to 2.37 billion.
Binance whale positioning was mixed. Large traders remained bullish on BTC, although their stance was less aggressive than Friday. They had turned bearish on ETH while retaining bullish positioning on SOL. XRP was also bearish again, but the stance was less negative than Friday’s reading.
HBAR Open Interest Hits New Record
HBAR stood apart from the broader market decline. Open interest reached a record 2.30 billion HBAR while its spot price surged 48% over 24 hours, suggesting that fresh long exposure entered the market.
Still, the 24-hour open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta was negative, and annualized funding was only slightly above zero. The data indicates that aggressive buying was not driving the advance and that short sellers could be positioning against the rally.
Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility also increased slightly. Volmex’s BVIV rose to 37.4% after recovering from below 36% last week. Ether’s EVIV followed a similar pattern. The Wall Street VIX rose to 16 on Friday from below 14.
Options Activity Shows Diverging Bets
On Deribit, the $84,000 bitcoin put expiring Sept. 30 was the most actively traded BTC options contract over 24 hours. Put options are generally used to hedge against falling prices or position for downside.
Ether options showed a different picture, with the $2,850 call expiring Oct. 20 leading activity, reflecting interest in upside exposure.
HBAR Leads as Friday Winners Retreat
HBAR rose 13% since midnight and 14% over 24 hours to around $0.11, making it the only CoinDesk 100 asset to gain more than 3% during Monday’s session.
The token has been consolidating since its move from below $0.08 during the week of Sept. 19. No new catalyst was identified for Monday’s rally, although The Hashgraph Group added its Hedera-based IDTrust identity platform to IBM’s cloud catalog on Sept. 23.
Friday’s leading gainers largely reversed course. QNT fell 16% to $240.59, GRT declined 12% and Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) lost 12%. KITE dropped 11%, while Celestia (TIA) declined 9.1%.
DeFi assets were among the hardest hit. Uniswap (UNI) fell 7.9% to $8.91 and was down 11% over 24 hours. Morpho (MORPHO) declined 7.5% on the day and 8.5% over 24 hours, while ONDO dropped 12%. The DeFi sector index fell 6.4% after gaining 8.7% during the previous rolling 24-hour period.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) extended its retreat from the CME-driven rally, falling 7.7% to $306.69 and 10% over 24 hours. Sui (SUI) declined 6.2%, while Solana (SOL) dropped 2.9% to $118.41.
A few older layer-1 tokens remained higher. Algorand (ALGO) gained 2.3%, XDC Network (XDC) rose 2.3%, JUST (JST) added 1.3%, and IOTA (MIOTA) climbed 1.0%. All four also remained positive over 24 hours.
Despite the broader decline, CoinMarketCap’s altcoin season index stayed elevated at 65 out of 100, its highest reading in more than three months.
