Bitcoin surged above $80,000 for the first time since May, extending its seven-day rally to nearly 25%.
Bitcoin (BTC) gained over 4% in the past 24 hours, reclaiming the $80,000 level and bringing its weekly increase to about 25%. The broader CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index also rose 2.7%.
The latest upswing began last week after the U.S. Treasury said it planned to at least double buybacks of long-term bonds. The rally then accelerated as stronger spot demand and improving liquidity indicated growing capital deployment, according to Glassnode.
Bitfinex analysts remained cautious despite the recovery. Roughly $3 billion worth of short positions across crypto were liquidated over two days, while Bitcoin network transaction activity remained close to eight-year lows.
Gold continued its climb, reaching a three-month high of around $4,650 an ounce. Brent crude, meanwhile, declined more than 2% over the past day as markets appeared to shrug off the U.S. expansion of economic measures against Iran.
Derivatives Positioning
Bitcoin’s advance has paused since Asian trading hours, but futures data still points to a bullish market. Long positions represented more than 51% of total taker flow, referring to traders who execute orders against available liquidity.
Leverage among Bitcoin traders remains relatively subdued. BTC futures open interest is still in the low-700,000 BTC range after dropping sharply during last week’s rally, when a wave of short liquidations cleared out bearish positions. Analysts say lower leverage may be positive because excessive leverage can make markets more vulnerable to abrupt swings.
Ether and XRP futures are showing similar conditions. Solana (SOL) open interest climbed 4% over 24 hours to 66.14 million SOL but remains within its established range. A sustained break above $100 could encourage additional capital to enter, given that SOL has traded between roughly $70 and $100 since February.
Selling Pressure Returns
The 24-hour open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD) has moved into negative territory for most major cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH and ADA. The reading suggests sellers are becoming more aggressive, with more traders using market orders to initiate short positions rather than passive limit orders.
Options Volatility Moderates
Options sellers appear to be returning, limiting further gains in Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV. The gauge has fallen to 45% from 49% on Friday, while Ether’s volatility index has also weakened.
Bullish Options Positioning
Some traders have spent millions of dollars on options bets targeting a rapid Bitcoin move above $82,000. Volume rankings for Bitcoin and Ether also indicate stronger demand for calls and other upside exposure. However, negative seven-day skews for both assets show that traders continue to seek protection against potential downside, according to Laevitas.
Token Moves
Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) was one of the biggest gainers, rising 12.5% after launching its AI-agent tokenization platform on Solana. The rollout enables AI agents to raise funds, set transaction fees and operate through dedicated wallets.
Stacks (STX) jumped 16%, marking the strongest gain among the listed tokens despite the absence of an obvious news catalyst.
Polygon (POL) climbed 12% following comments from co-founder Sandeep Nailwal that the team is advancing a proposal to overhaul staking and tokenomics.
Injective (INJ) added 10%, extending its gains after an affiliated entity secured SEC registration as a transfer agent. Solana rose 5.1%, helped by continued ETF inflows and progress toward a network upgrade.
Aave (AAVE) and Ethena (ENA) moved lower despite the broader market rally, falling 8.5% and 6.4%, respectively, without clear project-specific catalysts. Morpho (MORPHO) declined 7.9%, while ether.fi (ETHFI) lost 1.3% after posting gains of around 30% over the previous week.
