Altcoins were leading the crypto market higher on Monday, with the CoinDesk 80 up about 3% over the past 24 hours, more than double the 1.2% gain in the CoinDesk 5. Bitcoin was still trading below $83,500 even after rising above $84,000 on Sunday.
Ether added about 2.5% to trade at $2,560. Bitcoin was quoted at $84,155.39 in the market snapshot, while ether was at $2,554.06.
Altcoin gains are coming in the thinnest part of the market
CoinDesk research said bitcoin and ether order books have rebuilt in dollar terms to pre-crash levels since the Oct. 10, 2025 flash crash. Altcoin liquidity, by contrast, has kept eroding.
「Market makers have returned to majors,」 Joshua de Vos, research lead at CoinDesk, said in Saturday’s report.
That leaves smaller tokens moving in a thinner market structure. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season indicator stands at 66/100, its highest reading in more than a year, as traders place speculative bets while bitcoin consolidates between $80,000 and $88,000.
Spot bitcoin ETFs saw $681 million in net outflows last week
Institutional flows are moving the other way. U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $681 million of net outflows last week, the most since June, according to SoSoValue. Most of the selling came on Wednesday and Thursday.
Spot ether ETFs have not posted a day of inflows since Sept. 28. The current nine-day run of outflows is the longest since June.
In macro markets, WTI crude futures fell about 2% to $90 a barrel after President Donald Trump said Russia would supply 300,000 metric tons of diesel to global markets as part of a partial easing of sanctions. Attention is now on Wednesday’s U.S. consumer price index data.
Futures volume is rising, but leverage is not
Derivatives activity has accelerated without a matching build in leverage. Trading volume over 24 hours reached $126 billion, up 81%. Open interest, the dollar value of all open contracts, rose only 2.44% to $145.8 billion. Traders are turning over positions faster, but few are opening large amounts of new exposure.
Taker flow has also shifted. Longs accounted for 52% of 24-hour taker volume, up from 48% last week. Because taker volume reflects traders paying for immediate execution, it offers a read on which side is more aggressive.
ZEC and NEAR show different kinds of futures demand
ZEC is attracting heavy futures activity, though little of it appears to be fresh money. The token ranked fourth by futures volume over 24 hours at $5.46 billion, behind bitcoin, ether and SOL. Its price rose 6% and open interest increased 7%. Since OI is measured in dollars, part of that increase came from the higher price itself. After adjusting for that effect, only about 1% more contracts were actually open.
ZEC’s annualized funding rate was 10%, meaning longs were paying shorts a premium to hold positions. Its cumulative volume delta, or CVD, was only slightly positive.
NEAR’s move appears to have more new positioning behind it. The token rose 10% while open interest climbed 17%, which works out to roughly 6% more open contracts. Funding was positive here as well. CoinDesk said NEAR also had the second-highest 24-hour OI-adjusted CVD among major tokens, a sign that buyers were driving the move. The price reached its highest level since December.
Bitcoin and ether still show muted leverage demand
Open interest in bitcoin and ether barely changed over the past 24 hours and remains well below the peaks seen earlier this year. Volumes were described as normal.
Options markets are also signaling limited expectations for a large move. Bitcoin’s implied volatility index, BVIV, has struggled to move above 40% after rebounding from year-to-date lows near 34% last week. Ether’s index shows the same pattern. A flat implied volatility reading means options traders are not pricing in a major swing.
On Deribit, bitcoin puts with strikes from $55,000 to $80,000 dominated 24-hour volume, showing demand for downside protection. Ether options flow was more mixed, with both calls and puts appearing in the top five contracts.
Oil shorts on Hyperliquid look crowded
In Hyperliquid’s oil market, shorts are paying longs funding of 100% or more on an annualized basis. Funding is the fee one side of a perpetual futures trade pays the other to keep the contract close to spot. Shorts pay when they outnumber longs. Such a high rate suggests short positioning is crowded and could reverse quickly if oil rises.
STRK, ZRO and ZEC were among the notable movers
Starknet’s STRK has climbed 76% over the past week. It added another 54% on Saturday after a 33% jump on Friday, as the network considers leaving Ethereum to become a standalone, quantum-resistant layer-1. CoinDesk said the run was built partly on leverage, though the token saw profit-taking on Monday and fell 7.7%.
LayerZero’s ZRO also started the week strongly, rising 21% over 24 hours to $2.41, its highest level since May 2025, with market capitalization nearing $1 billion. The report said the move looked more like a bounce from oversold conditions than a reaction to fresh news.
Zcash rose even as it appeared in the laundering trail tied to the Ledger reseller supply-chain attack. The attacker routed stolen ether through Tornado Cash and then into ZEC via NEAR Intents. Losses tied to devices sold by Malaysian reseller CryptoBilis are estimated at $86 million to $93 million. Ledger has confirmed that at least one device contained an unauthorized hardware implant.