Altcoins continued to outperform bitcoin on Friday, with Quant jumping 39% over 24 hours and 93 of the 100 CoinDesk 100 constituents posting gains. The CoinMarketCap Altcoin Season Index also reached its highest level in more than three months.
Bitcoin was trading around $84,342, essentially unchanged since midnight UTC. While BTC consolidated near $84,000, the CoinDesk 80 index gained 4.7%, compared with a 1.0% rise for the CoinDesk 5.
The market rotation resembles patterns seen in earlier cycles, when capital moves toward more speculative assets after bitcoin stages a strong advance and then loses momentum. Higher funding costs for maintaining leveraged long positions can also encourage traders to seek opportunities elsewhere.
Bitcoin climbed from below $63,000 in August to nearly $87,000 on Tuesday before moving sideways. Altcoins have strengthened during the consolidation. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index rose to 56 from 45 a week ago and 38 a month ago, its highest reading in more than three months.
Chainlink (LINK), Internet Computer (ICP) and Bittensor (TAO) helped drive the CoinDesk Computing Index 9.5% higher over 24 hours. The DeFi Select Index advanced 8.7%, with both indexes gaining more than three times the CoinDesk blended benchmark’s 2.5%.
Bitget Breach Fails to Stop Altcoin Gains
The broader market largely absorbed the impact of Bitget’s $351.6 million security breach. Attackers compromised a backend system within the exchange’s wallet infrastructure and spoofed transaction information to activate the platform’s own authorization process.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said private-key compromise had been ruled out and that the exchange’s $464 million User Protection Fund covers the reported loss. Withdrawals remain suspended while the exchange completes its security review.
The macro environment also improved after a difficult week. European equities opened sharply higher following reports that U.S. and Iranian negotiators were discussing a phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude fell below $100 to $98.94, gold added 0.26% to $4,287 and the dollar index declined 0.11% to 101.14.
Derivatives Activity Cools
Taker flow approaches neutral: The 24-hour long-short taker volume ratio moved toward 50%, easing from Thursday’s 52% short-heavy reading. Trading volume fell 17% to $206 billion, while open interest increased 1.8% to $153 billion. Liquidations declined 63% to $228 million.
Lower volume combined with slightly higher OI suggests traders are keeping existing positions open rather than making large changes. The drop in liquidations also indicates limited forced selling.
Bitcoin futures OI slips below 700,000 BTC: BTC futures open interest moved below 700,000 BTC after a short-lived increase that had indicated renewed demand for leveraged longs. Binance whale positioning remained strong, with the long-short whale account ratio at 1.33 and the whale position ratio at 1.87.
ETH, SOL and XRP OI remain unchanged: Futures open interest for Ethereum, Solana and XRP showed no change over 24 hours, suggesting limited new positioning.
Zcash sees fresh leverage: ZEC rose 7% while futures open interest jumped 15.9%. The simultaneous increase in price and OI suggests new positions are entering the market rather than traders simply closing shorts.
Annualized funding near 10% and the strongest positive 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta among major tokens also support a bullish positioning bias. ZEC is nearly 300% higher this quarter, although the buildup of leverage following such a large rally could make the trade susceptible to a sharp reversal.
LINK OI grows faster than price: Chainlink futures open interest increased 28%, roughly twice the 14% price gain over the same period. The divergence typically indicates fresh long positions entering the market.
ONDO OI reaches a record: Futures open interest climbed to 1.07 billion tokens as ONDO’s spot price reached its highest level since November 2025. The record OI indicates broader participation behind the price advance.
BTC and ETH volatility declines: Thirty-day implied volatility for bitcoin and ether continued to move toward yearly lows that have acted as support for much of the year. Options markets are not signaling expectations of a disorderly move.
Deribit expiry passes without major disruption: More than $17 billion in BTC and ETH options expired Friday with little visible market impact. The most traded BTC strike over the previous 24 hours was the $70,000 call, followed by the $90,000 call. ETH’s most traded strike was the $2,800 call.
QNT Leads the Altcoin Market
Quant (QNT) traded at $98.93 after gaining 9.8% since midnight and 39% over 24 hours, making it the biggest gainer in the CoinDesk 100 across both periods.
ONDO rose 8.4% since midnight and 32% over 24 hours, while Lido DAO (LDO) gained 8.0% and 20%.
AI and computing tokens also moved higher across the sector. All seven CoinDesk Computing Index constituents were in positive territory. LINK rose 3.7% on the day and 12% over 24 hours, ICP gained 4.3% and 10%, TAO added 2.2% and 5.4%, while FET increased 1.6% since midnight and 18% over 24 hours.
DeFi tokens also advanced, with the DeFi Select Index up 8.7%. ONDO, LDO and Ethena (ENA) were among the contributors, with ENA gaining 10% over 24 hours despite falling 0.42% since midnight. Uniswap (UNI) remained nearly flat, up 0.67% on the day and 0.66% over 24 hours.
Privacy-focused assets continued to climb. Zcash gained 2.5% to $1,584.86, while Monero rose 1.0% to $571.43. ZEC remained about 16% above its level a week earlier and continued trading near record highs.
The session’s decliners were largely tokens that had led gains previously. Raydium (RAY) fell 3.4%, Bonk (BONK) declined 2.7% and Litecoin (LTC) dropped 1.6% to $70.78 following its halving-driven rally. All three were still higher over 24 hours except Raydium.
