Bitcoin rose 0.5% since midnight UTC to trade around $81,700, rebounding from a low near $81,000, while altcoins moved faster across the market. The CoinDesk 80 index gained 1.4%, the memecoin gauge climbed 2.9%, and frog-themed memecoin PEPE advanced 13%.
The move followed Thursday’s tech-led sell-off. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.6%, its steepest decline since June. Asian markets later steadied, with South Korea’s Kospi up 0.3%, China’s CSI 300 up 1.7%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 0.25%.
Traders are now watching the Federal Reserve’s Oct. 27-28 meeting. Brent crude near $113 is keeping inflation concerns in focus, and exchange-traded fund flows are also back in view after U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs posted $635 million in outflows on Thursday, according to SoSoValue data. That came after more than $1 billion of inflows over the first three days of the week.
Spot market: bitcoin steady, altcoins outperform
CoinDesk said bitcoin rose 0.5% to around $81,700 since midnight UTC. Ether added 0.9%, the CoinDesk 80 (CD80) altcoin index rose 0.7%, and the memecoin gauge climbed 2.9%.
PEPE led the CD100 with a 14% gain, its biggest daily advance in a month. The Ethereum-based token has now risen 23% over the past week and 16% over the past month. CoinDesk said the run had no clear catalyst.
Elsewhere in memecoins, FLOKI, BONK and SHIB rose between 3.3% and 4.9% on the day, though all three remain down on a monthly basis, by as much as 16%. PEPE’s 24-hour trading volume reached about $353 million, up 10% from roughly the same time a day earlier.
Layer-1 tokens also joined the rebound. Polkadot (DOT) and Cosmos (ATOM) each rose more than 5%, extending weekly gains to above 6%. Even so, DOT remains down 2.5% in October, while ATOM is up 3.6% for the month.
DeFi tokens bounced after leading Thursday’s declines. Uniswap (UNI) gained 3.5% to around $7.25, and Ethena (ENA) rose 2.0% to around $0.20.
The weakest monthly performers in the CD100 also moved higher. Doublezero (2Z) rose 2.5% and Monad (MON) gained 4.3%, though they are still down 49% and 31% over the month.
CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season indicator stood at 58/100, up from Monday’s low of 54/100, as positive sentiment continued to support the altcoin sector during bitcoin’s tight trading range.
Derivatives positioning
Crypto futures activity cooled over the past 24 hours. Volume fell 19% and liquidations dropped 23%, a day after both had jumped. Open interest rose 1% after declining the previous day. With bitcoin’s price little changed, the increase suggests traders were adding positions again rather than only closing them. The long/short taker volume ratio leaned slightly to shorts, at 51.6% versus 48.4% for longs.
Open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta, or CVD, pointed to a bullish reset. The measure tracks whether market orders are dominated by buying or selling. Most tokens finished below zero yesterday, with the weakest near -0.12%. Today, almost all were within 0.05% of zero. XAUT was the exception, sitting around -0.25%.
BTC and ETH show quiet rebuilding
Futures open interest rose about 1% in both bitcoin and ether while prices barely moved, a sign of modest new positioning. Liquidations fell sharply, by about two-thirds in bitcoin and by about one-third in ether.
Bitcoin funding rose to 0.0067% from 0.0041%, meaning longs were paying slightly more to hold positions. Ether funding was flat.
BNB, SUI and DOGE funding turns positive again
On the previous day, shorts were paying longs in BNB and SUI, with funding at -0.0048% and -0.0036%, while DOGE was flat. Today, all three turned positive, and funding increased across most top tokens. Prices in all three also rose, meaning longs, not shorts, were paying to maintain positions.
De-risking continues in mZEC, SOL, XRP and DOGE
Open interest fell in all four by more than price action alone would explain, indicating real position closures. ZEC showed the sharpest move, with open interest down 8% on a 1.5% price decline. CoinDesk said it was the second straight day of heavy exits, pointing to capital flight.
Commodity perpetuals keep attracting new money
Open interest in gold, silver and crude oil rose for a second day. Gold and silver prices fell, and funding stayed positive in both, meaning longs were paying. Crude oil open interest rose alongside a 1.4% price gain, while funding was negative, meaning shorts were paying.
XAUT, the gold token, stood apart. It showed the deepest negative open-interest-adjusted CVD among all tokens, indicating that market sells dominated activity.
XMR funding spike cools
Funding in XMR had been the hottest on the heatmap earlier in the 24-hour window, but later returned to normal levels. The leverage build-up flagged earlier also eased.
Options market shows different tone in bitcoin and ether
In bitcoin options, the most traded contract was the Nov. 27 $98,000 call, followed by the Dec. 25 $88,000 call. Five of the six most active contracts were calls, all above the market. The only put in that group was a $76,000 contract expiring on Oct. 30.
Ether options showed a different pattern. The top two contracts by volume were puts, led by the Oct. 26 $2,200 put with roughly 9,000 contracts. CoinDesk noted that volume data alone does not show whether those trades were buys or sells.
The 25-delta skew also showed a stronger put bias in ether. Ether’s one-week put-call skew was near 13%, meaning puts were priced well above calls, and that reading has climbed since early October. Bitcoin’s one-week skew fell to about 4% from a mid-month peak near 14%. CoinDesk said downside concern in bitcoin had eased, while concern in ether had grown, matching the heavier put activity in ether options.
