Altcoins outperformed bitcoin in Friday’s Asia trading, with BTC holding near $82,100 after rebounding from roughly $81,600 around 03:30 UTC. The broader move favored smaller tokens: Celestia climbed 16%, Injective rose 7.7%, and LayerZero gained 7.3%.
More than four in five members of the CoinDesk 100 Index traded higher, while the CoinDesk 5 stayed flat. Ether added 0.5% to trade near $2,450, and the CoinDesk 80 advanced 0.46%.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh did not offer guidance on the central bank’s plans for its meeting later this month during remarks at the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok. According to the CME FedWatch tool, the probability of an October rate increase fell to about 15% from nearly 30%. Treasury yields were broadly steady.
Bitcoin steadies as altcoins take the lead
CoinDesk data showed bitcoin at $82,701.31, though the token was little changed from midnight UTC and trading around $82,100 during the session. That left BTC comfortably above Thursday’s brief drop below $80,000, the first break under that level in a month.
Altcoins were firmer across the board. Ether was up 0.5% near $2,450. The CoinDesk 80 Index (CD80) gained 0.46%, while the bitcoin-heavy CoinDesk 5 Index (CD5) was unchanged.
Celestia (TIA) rose 16%, Injective advanced 7.7%, and LayerZero added 7.3%. The move pushed CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index to 60 from 50 a day earlier, reflecting stronger participation outside bitcoin.
Asian equities stabilized after Thursday’s sell-off. South Korea’s Kospi closed 2.05% higher and Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.39%. S&P 500 futures were little changed after the index ended a three-day losing streak.
Derivatives positioning points to calmer trading
Volume cools while open interest rises
Crypto futures trading volume fell 20% over 24 hours to $200 billion. At the same time, open interest climbed 2% to $142.21 billion. Liquidations dropped sharply to $311 million from nearly $1 billion a day earlier. CoinDesk said the combination of quieter turnover and still-rising positioning suggests the phase of forced selling may have passed.
Selling pressure fades
The 24-hour long/short taker volume ratio moved back to balance after shorts accounted for 52% of taker activity the previous day. That shift indicates aggressive selling has eased.
BTC, ETH and SOL rise without strong new long participation
Bitcoin’s notional open interest increased just 0.3% against a 1% gain in price, implying the number of outstanding contracts slipped slightly. Ether and solana showed the same pattern, with open interest rising by less than spot prices. CoinDesk said the move looks more like short covering than fresh long accumulation.
XRP rally meets profit-taking
XRP’s open interest fell 1% while spot rose 1.4%, showing that contracts were closed into the price increase. Its 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta was also negative. That metric tracks net aggressive buying and selling at market prices rather than passive limit orders, and the reading suggests derivatives traders were not strongly backing the rebound.
ZEC stands out with new bullish bets
ZEC futures open interest jumped 14% while price gained 11.5%, indicating traders added contracts as the token moved higher. Its OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta was the most positive among major tokens, a sign that buyers were the aggressive side. TRX, XAUT and ETH also posted positive readings, BTC was neutral, and UNI, HBAR and XRP were negative.
Funding remains constructive, not overheated
Annualized perpetual funding rates for major tokens sat in a 5% to 10% range. That points to a modest long bias, but not to excessive positioning.
Implied volatility keeps falling
BVIV, bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, dropped to 38% from 42% the previous day. Ether implied volatility also fell. Options markets were pricing a calmer environment, matching the message from funding rates.
Options flow shows downside hedging in BTC and upside interest in ETH
Decentralized exchange Derive highlighted a large bitcoin put spread that traded earlier this week and targeted a move down to $78,000. On Deribit, the largest centralized options venue, the $80,000 put was the most active contract, showing that some traders were still buying downside protection. In ether, the $2,600 call was the most traded option over the past 24 hours.
Celestia, Injective and LayerZero lead the move
Celestia (TIA), the token of the modular data-availability network, rose 16% to around $0.68. It was the biggest gainer in the CD100 and reached a new high for 2026. Over the past four weeks, the token has advanced about 59%. CoinDesk linked the rally to two developments: Celestia Fibre reaching 3.07 terabits per second in a throughput benchmark, and the introduction of a proposed economic upgrade called the Sustainable Blob Economy.
Injective, the finance-focused layer-1 token, climbed 7.7% to about $9.19. CoinDesk said there is no single dominant narrative behind the move, though three pending U.S. exchange-traded fund applications are tied to the token. CoinMarketCap showed $289.7 million in 24-hour INJ trading volume, up 128% from the previous day.
LayerZero (ZRO), the cross-chain messaging token, gained 7.3% to about $2.24, extending a rally associated with its ATLAS trading infrastructure, which directs most fees toward buying back and burning the token. Ether.fi (ETHFI), the liquid restaking token, rose 4.2%.
Lagging tokens and larger-cap performance
Starknet (STRK) was the weakest member of the CD100, falling 9.6% to $0.08 after an 11% gain on Thursday. Stacks (STX), described as a bitcoin-staking layer token, fell 4.2%.
Among larger names, performance was mixed to higher. Solana (SOL) rose 1.2% to about $107, XRP added 0.5%, monero (XMR) gained 2.9% to around $565, and BNB was little changed.
Additional market commentary attached to the article
At the end of the piece, CoinDesk also included a separate market commentary item titled “Beyond the Risk-Free Rate: Diversified Real World Yield in Productive Stablecoins.” It said diversified RWA stablecoins can sustain yields of 5% to 7% from real credit while crypto funding compresses to about 4%. It also said GENIUS pushes yield off-chain and that the total addressable market could grow to $4 billion in three years. The note appeared with the prompt “Why it matters.”