Bitcoin Trades Near $81,700 as Altcoins Rally and PEPE Jumps 14%

Bitcoin rose modestly on Friday, gaining 0.5% to approximately $81,700 since midnight UTC, while altcoins recorded broader advances. The CoinDesk 80 index climbed 1.4%, and the memecoin sector gained 2.9% as traders moved back into risk assets.

Ether (ETH) increased 0.9% to around $2,401, while the CoinDesk 80 (CD80) index added 0.7%. The memecoin gauge also advanced 2.9%, indicating stronger momentum among smaller crypto assets.

The gains followed Thursday’s technology-driven sell-off, when the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.6%, marking its largest daily decline since June. Asian equities showed mixed performance as markets stabilized. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.3%, China’s CSI 300 gained 1.7%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.25%.

Attention is turning to the Federal Reserve’s Oct. 27–28 meeting, as Brent crude near $113 keeps inflation concerns elevated. Crypto investors are also monitoring ETF activity. SoSoValue data showed that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced $635 million in outflows on Thursday, following more than $1 billion in inflows during the first three days of the week.

Futures Activity Eases as Traders Rebuild Positions

Crypto futures volume fell 19% over 24 hours, while liquidations decreased 23% after a sharp increase the previous day. Open interest recovered by 1% after previously declining, suggesting traders are cautiously opening positions again despite limited movement in Bitcoin’s price.

The long-short taker volume ratio showed a modest bearish bias, with short-side volume accounting for 51.6% compared with 48.4% for longs.

Open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta, a measure of aggressive buying and selling, moved closer to neutral across most tokens. Almost all assets recorded readings within 0.05% of zero, unlike the broadly negative readings seen the day before. XAUT remained an outlier at approximately -0.25%, reflecting stronger selling pressure.

BTC and ETH See Modest Increases in Open Interest

Bitcoin and Ether futures open interest each rose around 1%, even as their prices remained largely unchanged. The increase suggests traders are adding exposure rather than relying solely on existing positions.

Liquidations dropped significantly, falling by roughly two-thirds for Bitcoin and one-third for Ether. Bitcoin’s funding rate increased to 0.0067% from 0.0041%, meaning long traders are paying more to maintain leveraged positions. Ether’s funding rate remained unchanged.

Funding rates for BNB, SUI and DOGE also moved into positive territory. BNB and SUI had recorded negative rates of -0.0048% and -0.0036%, respectively, on Thursday, when short traders were paying longs. With prices rising and funding now positive, long traders are paying to hold positions in these tokens.

By contrast, open interest continued to decline in mZEC, SOL, XRP and DOGE, indicating that traders are reducing exposure. ZEC recorded the sharpest drop, with open interest down 8% while its price fell 1.5%. The decline marked a second consecutive day of significant position closures.

Commodity Derivatives Continue to Attract Positions

Open interest in gold, silver and crude oil futures increased for a second consecutive day. Gold and silver prices fell despite positive funding rates, suggesting long traders continued paying to maintain their positions.

Crude oil futures recorded a different pattern, with open interest rising alongside a 1.4% price increase. Its negative funding rate indicated that short traders were paying long traders. Meanwhile, XAUT showed the strongest selling imbalance among the tracked tokens, with open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta near -0.25%.

Monero’s funding rate has also retreated from the elevated levels seen earlier in the 24-hour period. The move suggests the recent buildup in leveraged XMR positions has moderated.

Bitcoin Options Activity Favors Calls, Ether Favors Puts

Bitcoin options trading was concentrated in upside calls, led by the Nov. 27 $98,000 call and the Dec. 25 $88,000 call. Five of the six most actively traded contracts were calls with strike prices above Bitcoin’s current price. The only put in the group was a $76,000 contract expiring Oct. 30.

Ether options activity leaned toward downside protection, with puts occupying the top two positions. The Oct. 26 $2,200 put led trading with approximately 9,000 contracts. However, volume data alone does not reveal whether traders were buying or selling these options.

Ether’s one-week 25-delta put-call skew rose to around 13%, showing that put options were considerably more expensive than calls. Bitcoin’s comparable measure fell to roughly 4% after reaching a mid-month peak near 14%.

The difference points to declining demand for downside protection in Bitcoin options and increasing concern about potential losses in Ether.

PEPE Leads the Memecoin Rebound

Pepe (PEPE) surged 14%, recording the strongest gain in the CD100 and its largest daily advance in a month. The Ethereum-based memecoin’s rally lifted its weekly gain to 23% and its monthly advance to 16%, despite the absence of a clear catalyst.

Other popular memecoins also posted gains. Floki (FLOKI), Bonk (BONK) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) advanced between 3.3% and 4.9%, although they remained down by as much as 16% over the past month.

PEPE recorded approximately $353 million in 24-hour trading volume, roughly 10% higher than the previous day’s level at the same time.

Layer-1 tokens Polkadot (DOT) and Cosmos (ATOM) rose more than 5% each, pushing their weekly gains above 6%. Their October returns remained different, with DOT down 2.5% and ATOM up 3.6%.

Decentralized finance tokens also recovered after leading Thursday’s declines. Uniswap (UNI) gained 3.5% to around $7.25, while Ethena (ENA) advanced 2% to approximately $0.20.

DoubleZero (2Z) and Monad (MON), two of the CD100’s weakest performers over the month, rose 2.5% and 4.3%, respectively. Despite the daily gains, they remained down 49% and 31% for the month.

CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season indicator climbed to 58 out of 100, up from Monday’s low of 54. The increase suggests sentiment toward altcoins is improving as Bitcoin continues to trade within a relatively narrow range.