Bitcoin continued trading sideways near $74,000 as stronger-than-expected U.S. inflation data pushed expectations of a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase toward 90%. Meanwhile, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a fourth consecutive day of outflows, while liquidations across crypto derivatives markets surged.
Bitcoin (BTC) was trading around $74,000 with little movement since midnight UTC after recovering from Tuesday’s low of $72,700. Ether (ETH) also held near $2,050. Elsewhere, the CoinDesk Memecoin Index dropped 1.2%, while the CoinDesk 80 Index declined 0.3%.
The cryptocurrency market showed weaker momentum compared with traditional equities, where U.S. stock futures rebounded early Wednesday. Nasdaq-100 futures gained 1.7% following stronger-than-anticipated earnings from AI cloud computing provider CoreWeave.
According to SoSoValue, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced $95 million in net outflows on Tuesday, extending the withdrawal streak to four consecutive trading days. BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for $78 million of the losses, marking its eighth consecutive session of net redemptions.
Interest-rate expectations also shifted following October’s inflation report. U.S. consumer prices increased 0.4%, exceeding forecasts and pushing the probability of a Federal Reserve rate hike at its Dec. 8–9 meeting to approximately 90%, according to CME FedWatch. During the latest 24 hours, Bitcoin lost 0.7%, while Ether declined 1.7%.
U.S. bond markets remained closed Wednesday in recognition of Veterans Day.
Derivatives Market Activity
Liquidations rise 288%: Cryptocurrency futures liquidations climbed to $725 million over 24 hours, representing a 288% increase, according to CoinGlass. The surge followed Tuesday’s hotter-than-expected inflation reading. Derivatives trading volume also increased 24% to $204.8 billion, while total open interest slipped 1% to $127.2 billion, indicating that traders were reducing leveraged exposure.
Bitcoin funding rates indicate cautious positioning: Bitcoin open interest declined 0.2%, compared with a 0.6% drop in its market price. Funding remained positive at 0.0078%, equivalent to an annualized rate of 8.6%, below the standard 0.01% benchmark. Long traders continued paying short traders, although the premium suggested weaker bullish positioning. The taker buy/sell ratio stood at 0.97, pointing to stronger selling activity. Bitcoin liquidations reached $200.5 million, with long positions accounting for 85%. December futures contracts maintained an annualized basis of 5%–7%.
Ether liquidations surpass Bitcoin: Ether derivatives recorded $253 million in liquidations, exceeding Bitcoin’s total despite Ether’s $25.2 billion open interest being roughly half the size of Bitcoin’s. Ether open interest contracted 3.6%, while its price declined 1.7%, suggesting a substantial reduction in market participation. Its funding rate remained positive at 0.0059%.
Altcoin leverage continues to unwind: Zcash (ZEC) recorded the largest altcoin liquidation total at $40.3 million as its price dropped approximately 13%. Open interest in ZEC futures declined 10.5%. XRP open interest decreased 3.8% against a 1.8% price decline, while HYPE open interest fell 3% compared with a 2.2% drop in price. These movements indicate that traders were withdrawing capital from several altcoin derivatives markets.
Traditional finance contracts attract substantial volume: Traditional financial assets accounted for four of the 10 most actively traded perpetual futures contracts over the past 24 hours, according to Coinalyze. The Direxion 3x Semiconductor ETF (SOXL) led with $8.4 billion in volume, followed by SanDisk at $4.4 billion, gold at $2.4 billion, and Nvidia at $2 billion. SOXL’s activity exceeded the trading volume of Solana and XRP. Nvidia perpetual futures open interest also increased 50% to $411 million after its shares fell 5.5% on Tuesday.
Bitcoin put options dominate trading: Put options expiring between Nov. 12 and Nov. 27 recorded 1.5 times the volume of call options on Deribit. Eight of the 10 most actively traded contracts were puts, concentrated at strike prices between $69,000 and $74,000. The Nov. 27 $69,000 put recorded the highest activity. Friday’s expiration showed stronger positioning in far out-of-the-money calls, with the largest open interest at the $81,000 strike, representing 8,306 BTC, and the $84,000 strike, representing 5,231 BTC.
Options markets maintain a downside bias: At-the-money implied volatility remained around 36% for Nov. 27 options and 38% for Nov. 13 contracts. Meanwhile, 25-delta puts traded at a premium of four to five volatility points over comparable calls, indicating continued demand for downside protection.
Token Market Updates
Telegram’s cryptocurrency wallet expansion gained renewed attention as gram (GRAM), the renamed toncoin, topped the CoinDesk 100 with approximately 5% gains since midnight UTC. The move came two days after Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced that more than 700,000 wallets had been created through the application within a 48-hour period.
Zcash (ZEC) came under considerable selling pressure, declining approximately 14% over 24 hours. The weakness coincided with the liquidation of leveraged long positions and withdrawals from Grayscale’s Zcash ETF. Monero (XMR), in contrast, advanced approximately 2% since midnight UTC.
Midnight (NIGHT), the privacy-focused blockchain associated with Cardano, gained around 5% after its Ledger 9 upgrade was activated on the mainnet earlier this week.
Altcoins continued to lag behind Bitcoin as investors showed little appetite for a broader shift toward alternative cryptocurrencies. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index fell to 40 out of 100, down from 49 last Thursday and significantly below the 75-point threshold typically associated with an altcoin season.
Bitcoin’s dominance of the overall cryptocurrency market increased to 60.5%, compared with 59.9% on Friday, highlighting the continued concentration of capital in BTC. Meanwhile, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index remained at 26, signaling that broader market sentiment was still firmly within fear territory.
