Bitcoin recovered toward $86,000 after touching roughly $85,000 during Asian trading, while a decline in oil prices and gains in global equities helped support broader risk appetite.
BTC was recently trading at $86,008.15. The cryptocurrency pushed decisively above its May high on Monday, extending its recent recovery. The CoinDesk 20 Index rose 2.2% over the same 24-hour period.
Spot bitcoin ETFs also delivered a strong signal of demand. U.S.-listed funds recorded almost $1 billion in net inflows Monday, their biggest daily inflow since October last year.
Crude prices continued to fall, with WTI futures dropping more than 2% below $90 a barrel. The decline extended a retreat from a recent high of $106 and followed a Kyodo report that Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the U.S. eased its blockade.
Lower oil prices can reduce pressure on consumer prices, potentially weakening expectations for further Federal Reserve rate increases. The move also provided support for risk assets more broadly.
Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro, said crypto benefited from a strong Nasdaq performance, declining oil prices and U.S. Treasury yields, rising global stock markets and optimism around U.S.-China negotiations.
The rally also reached speculative corners of the crypto market. PEPE, DOGE and SHIB ranked among the 10 strongest cryptocurrencies over the previous 24 hours. Memecoin rallies are often associated with increased appetite for higher-risk trades.
Derivatives Point to Short-Covering
The derivatives market showed a sharp increase in trading activity, but open interest rose only marginally. Total crypto futures volume increased 38% to $292 billion over 24 hours, while open interest climbed 1% to $157 billion.
Around $768 million worth of crypto positions were liquidated during the period, with short positions accounting for most of the losses. The combination of heavy volume, limited OI growth and predominantly short liquidations suggests that forced short covering was an important component of the move.
Bitcoin futures OI has also increased alongside the price, reaching 716,000 BTC, its highest level since Aug. 25. The figure remains below the roughly 750,000 BTC average recorded from April through July.
Ether and Solana futures positioning remains more restrained. ETH has outperformed BTC this quarter, but its open interest continues to follow the declining trend that began in May. SOL has shown a similar pattern.
XRP has experienced a different setup, with futures OI rising to 2.46 billion tokens from 2.2 billion within 24 hours. The increase follows bitcoin’s direction but remains smaller in scale.
CoinGlass data indicate that whale positioning is not uniform across the market. The 24-hour whale bias is bearish for XRP, DOGE and gold, while BTC is extremely bullish and ETH and SOL are bullish. Such positioning is only one market signal, but it coincides with bitcoin’s stronger performance over the period.
CVD readings adjusted for open interest remain negative for BTC, ETH, XRP and SOL. In other words, aggressive futures selling has exceeded aggressive buying even while prices have moved higher. Most major cryptocurrencies show the same pattern, with TRX one of the exceptions.
That behavior is consistent with a market move supported by short covering rather than a broad surge in new long positions. CVD can vary between exchanges and should therefore be interpreted alongside other indicators.
Dogecoin has seen the largest leverage increase among the top 10 cryptocurrencies, with open interest rising 10% in 24 hours. A buildup in meme-token leverage can accompany periods of elevated speculation and is a metric traders often monitor when speculative activity accelerates.
Despite the pace of the BTC and ETH advances, volatility expectations remain contained. The BVIV and EVIV 30-day annualized implied-volatility indexes remain within their recent ranges and well below the highs reached in February and early June.
Laser Digital said the options volatility curve has flattened since last week as realized volatility increased and the correlation between spot prices and volatility moved firmly into positive territory.
Deribit’s short-term risk reversals shifted heavily toward BTC and ETH calls late Monday as bitcoin crossed $85,000, although that call preference has since moderated.
The busiest bitcoin options trades over the past 24 hours centered on $95,000 and $90,000 calls. ETH options activity was concentrated in calls with strikes between $2,500 and $3,000.
ZetaChain Plans Migration to Solana
ZetaChain tokenholders have voted to shut down the blockchain and move ZETA to Solana, although the transition still requires another governance vote.
The project launched in 2023 with $27 million in funding and was designed to enable transfers between otherwise disconnected blockchains. ZETA currently ranks around No. 313 by market capitalization, with a value of about $90 million.
More than 99% of participating voters supported the shutdown proposal Sunday, with turnout reaching 58%, comfortably above the required 40% threshold.
ZetaChain’s developers have pointed to the continuing cost of operating and securing an independent blockchain. The network relies on the Cosmos SDK, meaning vulnerabilities in shared components can require updates across multiple independent chains.
Cosmos Labs reported attacks on six chains using related software in August, with approximately $6 million stolen. ZetaChain was not affected, but the episode highlighted the security and maintenance demands associated with its infrastructure.
The migration to Solana is also tied to Anuma, an AI application launched by ZetaChain’s developers in February. The product is designed to carry user context between different AI models, and its creators say it has attracted more than 300,000 users.
The developers chose Solana partly because of its existing users, wallets and exchange infrastructure. The move would allow Anuma to operate within an established ecosystem rather than requiring users to bridge into ZetaChain.
The proposed arrangement would have ZETA holders lock their tokens in return for credits that can be spent on Anuma. That would change the token’s role from exposure to blockchain security toward prepaid application usage.
ZETA climbed from roughly 4 cents before the vote to 7 cents before reversing. It was recently down 16% over 24 hours at just below 6 cents.
Trading volume reached almost $117 million against a market capitalization of about $90 million, meaning daily turnover exceeded the token’s total market value.
