Bitcoin dropped 0.5% to roughly $81,400 on Tuesday, despite U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posting $526.6 million in daily inflows, their strongest showing in nearly a month. Meanwhile, renewed concerns about AI spending drove South Korea’s Kospi lower and weakened sentiment across financial markets.
Bitcoin (BTC) traded around $81,400, down 0.5% since midnight UTC. The decline came despite U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs attracting $526.6 million on Monday, marking their largest single-day inflow in almost four weeks.
Asian markets faced significant selling pressure. South Korea’s Kospi fell 3.73%, recording its lowest close since April 7, as SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics shares declined amid fresh concerns about AI investment and its impact on semiconductor companies. Nasdaq 100 futures also slipped 0.31%.
Other cryptocurrencies largely tracked Bitcoin’s decline. Ether (ETH) lost 0.9% to trade near $2,385, while the CoinDesk 80 index (CD80) fell 0.34%. The Bitcoin-focused CoinDesk 5 index (CD5) declined 0.33%. Decentralized finance assets underperformed, with the DFX sector index dropping 1.2%, the biggest fall among CoinDesk’s benchmarks.
Brent crude remained close to $110 per barrel as Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia heightened concerns about potential oil supply disruptions. Around 70 S&P 500 companies are expected to release earnings this week, including General Motors before Tuesday’s opening bell and United Airlines after the market closes.
Bitcoin derivatives show mixed signals
Bitcoin open interest on Coinalyze declined 0.6% over the past 24 hours to $27.4 billion. The aggregate funding rate stood at approximately 8.8% annually. Ether’s funding rate was around 3.9% annualized, pointing to a bullish bias among ETH derivatives traders.
Long positions represented about 55% of Bitcoin positions, according to Coinalyze, which reported a long-to-short ratio of 1.24. Binance’s leading traders showed a similar preference for long exposure, with the BTC-USDT position ratio at 1.78, based on CoinGlass data.
Options activity indicated growing demand for downside protection. On Deribit, put trading volume exceeded call volume by more than two to one over 24 hours, with the October 30 $80,000 put emerging as the most actively traded contract.
Out-of-the-money puts traded at premiums of 2.5 to 4 volatility points over equivalent calls across different expiries. This bearish skew suggests traders are willing to pay more to protect against further losses, even as open interest remains concentrated in October 30 calls with strike prices ranging from $90,000 to $100,000.
Liquidations across crypto markets totalled $155.1 million over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass, down 54.7% from the previous day. CoinMarketCap’s figures showed that long positions accounted for about 69% of the total. Coinalyze recorded approximately $30 million in liquidations for each of Bitcoin and Ether, together making up roughly half of its $120.6 million total.
Altcoin performance: Celestia gains while DeFi tokens retreat
Celestia (TIA) climbed 2.2% to around $0.63, leading gains across the CoinDesk 100 index (CD100). The token has advanced approximately 42% over the past month.
Its recent performance coincided with an October 1 benchmark showing Celestia’s Fibre scaling system averaging 3.07 terabits per second. Derivatives exchange Derive also selected Celestia to provide data availability for its V3 launch. Traders are now watching an October 31 unlock of 5.58 million TIA tokens, according to Tokenomist.
The Sandbox (SAND) recorded the steepest decline on the CD100, falling 4.5% to approximately $0.06. The drop reversed part of its roughly 30% gain over the previous month. The rally began after South Korean exchanges Upbit, Bithumb and Coinone lifted trading cautions introduced in August following a bridge exploit.
Layer-2 cryptocurrencies also posted losses. Arbitrum (ARB) declined 3.6%, while Starknet (STRK) fell 3.2%. Starknet nevertheless remains up about 29% over the past month after rallying on October 9 and 10. The gains followed the network’s announcement that it was exploring a transition into a standalone, quantum-resistant layer-1 blockchain by 2027.
DeFi tokens retreated after leading the market higher on Monday. Uniswap (UNI) fell 2.3% to approximately $7.14, while Morpho (MORPHO) declined 2.5%. UNI has lost around 20% over the past month, despite protocol revenue reaching $14.81 million in September after its fee switch was introduced. Token Terminal data identifies this as the strongest monthly revenue result since Uniswap began retaining fees.
Ethena (ENA) declined another 1.9%, extending its fall to approximately 30% from a late-September peak near $0.29. USDe’s supply stood at roughly $4.7 billion, down from a high near $15 billion. That figure remains significantly below the $7.5 billion threshold required to activate ENA buybacks.
