Bitcoin struggled to gain momentum despite a sharp recovery in U.S. stocks on Monday, as spot Bitcoin ETFs registered $201 million in net outflows. Market participants are now focused on October’s U.S. inflation figures, which could influence the next move in cryptocurrency markets.
Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $74,200 after losing ground since midnight UTC. The price briefly dropped to approximately $74,100 overnight as investors awaited the latest U.S. inflation data, which is expected to show that consumer price growth slowed in October.
Ether (ETH) declined 1.4%, while the CoinDesk 80 (CD80) index slipped 0.2%. Meanwhile, the CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) posted a modest 0.4% gain, outperforming the broader market.
The October Consumer Price Index (CPI) report is scheduled for release at 13:30 UTC. Dow Jones survey estimates point to a 0.3% increase in headline inflation and a 0.2% rise in core CPI. Both figures would be lower than September’s readings of 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively.
Wall Street delivered a strong performance on Monday. The S&P 500 recorded its largest daily advance since April 8, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.7%, recovering part of the previous week’s losses driven by concerns over AI-related stocks. Bitcoin failed to mirror the equity market rebound and remained largely unchanged over the last 24 hours.
Data from Farside Investors showed that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced $201 million in net outflows on Monday. BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for the largest share, with withdrawals reaching $213.2 million. This marked the fund’s seventh consecutive trading session of net outflows.
Derivatives market positioning
Crypto liquidations ease: Total cryptocurrency futures liquidations dropped roughly 84% to $184 million over the past 24 hours, compared with more than $1 billion on Monday. Trading volume decreased 8.55% to $165.2 billion, while open interest edged higher by 0.59% to $128.4 billion. The figures indicate a slowdown in speculative trading activity and relatively limited capital movement. The taker long/short ratio remained balanced, with buy orders accounting for 49.69% of activity against 50.31% for sell orders.
Funding rates favor long positions: Annualized funding rates remained slightly positive for most leading cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether. This means traders holding long positions are paying fees to those holding shorts. GRAM, previously called Toncoin, was a notable exception, with funding rates approaching -60%, suggesting a substantial concentration of bearish futures positions.
CVD points to uneven buying and selling pressure: Cumulative volume delta (CVD), which tracks the difference between aggressive market buying and selling and is adjusted for open interest in this dataset, revealed mixed trading patterns. GRAM, Hedera (HBAR) and Tron (TRX) recorded the strongest buying activity. Conversely, Zcash (ZEC), Uniswap (UNI) and XRP experienced the heaviest market-order selling.
Bitcoin, Ether and Solana see modest positioning shifts: Bitcoin’s notional open interest increased 0.70%, alongside a 0.25% price gain. Ether open interest rose 0.72% even as its price slipped 0.35%. Solana (SOL) recorded a 1.94% increase in open interest despite declining 1.06%. These movements suggest that traders continued adding futures exposure while spot prices remained weak or moved within relatively narrow ranges.
HYPE and XRP futures positions contract: Hyperliquid’s HYPE token recorded a 1.14% decline in open interest despite rising 1.62% in price, indicating that traders reduced their outstanding futures exposure during the rally. XRP open interest fell 3.83%, while its price declined 0.69%. XRP also featured among the cryptocurrencies experiencing the strongest selling activity.
Zcash open interest declines alongside its valuation: ZEC open interest dropped 3.31% as its market price plunged 5.41% over 24 hours. Because open interest declined less than the token’s price, the reduction may largely reflect the lower valuation of outstanding contracts rather than significant capital withdrawals. However, CVD data showed that Zcash faced the strongest market-order selling pressure.
AVAX attracts new futures positions: Avalanche’s AVAX token recorded a 13% increase in open interest over 24 hours, considerably exceeding its 5% price advance. This suggests that traders opened additional futures positions during the rally. However, negative CVD indicated that aggressive selling continued despite the price increase. Annualized funding rates stood near -6%, showing that short sellers were paying long-position holders. The rally followed Ava Labs’ November 9 announcement that Avalanche would provide the core ledger for clearing and settlement on a planned tokenized securities platform linked to the New York Stock Exchange.
Bitcoin options reflect demand for downside protection: Bitcoin’s 25-delta options skew remained positive across different expiration dates, reaching approximately 10% for one-week contracts. This indicates that put options were trading at a premium compared with calls, reflecting greater demand for protection against potential price declines. One-week at-the-money implied volatility stood around 38%. Trading activity was concentrated in put options, particularly the $74,000 strike expiring November 13.
Ether options attract call buyers: Ether’s one-week options skew also remained positive at approximately 11%, indicating that puts continued to command higher premiums than calls. Nevertheless, the most actively traded contracts were predominantly call options. The December 25 $2,600 strike led trading activity. At-the-money implied volatility remained relatively steady across expiration dates, ranging between 53% and 54%.
Altcoin and token developments
Avalanche (AVAX) advanced approximately 5% over the past 24 hours after the New York Stock Exchange selected its blockchain technology for clearing and settlement on a planned 24-hour tokenized securities platform. Despite the broader gain, AVAX remained down 2.6% since midnight UTC.
XDC Network (XDC), a layer-1 blockchain specializing in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, outperformed the CoinDesk 100 on Tuesday, gaining 7% since midnight UTC.
Privacy-focused cryptocurrencies gave back part of their recent gains as investor attention shifted toward projects associated with real-world asset infrastructure. Monero (XMR) dropped 7.8% over 24 hours, while Zcash (ZEC) declined 6.3%.
Hyperliquid (HYPE) officially became available for trading on Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, at 06:00 UTC. However, the listing failed to trigger an immediate price rally. HYPE slipped 0.9% since midnight UTC to approximately $74.50, leaving it around 22% below its late-October peak of $96.
Pieverse (PIEVERSE) emerged as one of the strongest-performing tokens, climbing approximately 30%. The project focuses on enabling AI agents to execute transactions through messaging applications such as Telegram and WhatsApp. It recently hinted at developing an AI agent trading desk through a post on X, although no official launch details have been confirmed.
Meanwhile, the CoinMarketCap Altcoin Season Index fell to 40 out of 100, down considerably from 62 recorded a month earlier. The decline highlights weakening momentum across the altcoin market and suggests that broader participation in the recent cryptocurrency rallies remains limited.
