Bitcoin fell below $84,000 shortly after midnight UTC after Iran stepped up attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, a development that pushed Brent crude above $101 a barrel and lifted Treasury yields and the U.S. dollar. CoinDesk reported that the pressure was heavier across smaller tokens, while total crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours rose to $547 million.
At the time cited in the report, bitcoin was trading at $83,762.81. The CoinDesk 80, which tracks a broad basket of smaller tokens, fell nearly 4% over 24 hours, compared with a 2.5% decline in the CoinDesk 5. DeFi tokens dropped almost 6%, and the Memecoin Index fell around 5%. Since midnight UTC, only a small group of tokens, including SAND, PUMP and STX, had managed to post gains.
CoinGlass data showed liquidations climbed 235% to $547 million over the past 24 hours. Ether positions accounted for $174 million of that total. Ether was quoted at $2,578.27 and traded around $2,600, down 3.5% since midnight UTC.
Demand for U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds had remained intact going into the decline. According to SoSoValue, the funds recorded $119 million in net inflows on Tuesday, marking their fourth inflow day in the last five sessions.
Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting are due later Wednesday. That meeting delivered a quarter-point rate increase. Dan Khus, chief analyst at LVRG Research, told CoinDesk that weaker jobs data had made another increase this month look less likely. Traders, he said, will be watching whether the minutes sound patient or still point to one more hike before year-end.
Derivatives positioning shows caution
CoinDesk said derivatives markets were signaling caution rather than fresh bullish conviction. Futures trading volume rose 16% to $182.85 billion over the past 24 hours, while open interest slipped 1% to $152.60 billion. Liquidations jumped 216% to $548 million, and shorts made up more than 52% of taker volume. Higher volume with nearly flat open interest, combined with seller-heavy flow, suggested active repositioning instead of new leveraged bullish bets.
Demand for bitcoin leverage remained weak. BTC futures open interest rose to 660,000 BTC, extending a recovery from an 11-month low of 626,000 BTC on Sept. 30. Even so, that level remained well below the record high of 800,000 BTC reached earlier this year. CoinDesk said the rebound was still too small to signal a return of leveraged bullish positioning.
Whale positioning was split across exchanges. According to CoinGlass, whale accounts and positions on Binance leaned bullish on BTC, while those on OKX were bearish to neutral. On Binance, whale bias was bearish for ETH, SOL and XRP. The divergence suggested large traders were not aligned on direction.
Ether open interest, by contrast, was testing its downtrend. ETH futures open interest rose to 13.22 million ETH from 12.5 million ETH a day earlier. If that gain holds, it would mark a clear break above the downtrend line in place since the May peak of around 15.95 million ETH. CoinDesk said that would point to traders returning to ether.
Among altcoins, Stacks’ STX was the strongest performer in the top 100 over 24 hours, up nearly 6%. Its futures open interest rose 3%, and the combination of rising price and rising open interest suggested fresh long positioning. AVAX and DOT also posted notable open-interest gains.
Funding and order flow leaned bearish. Perpetual funding rates for major tokens, including bitcoin and ether, turned slightly negative, meaning shorts were paying longs to keep positions open. The 24-hour cumulative volume delta for majors was also negative, showing sellers were more aggressive and were hitting bids with market orders.
Volatility in crypto remained subdued. Bitcoin’s and ether’s 30-day implied volatility indices stayed near year-to-date lows, and Wall Street’s VIX was also close to its yearly lows, even as bond-market volatility moved higher. Some observers expect that gap to close. For traders looking to hedge, low implied volatility keeps options relatively cheap.
On Deribit, bitcoin call options with strikes above $80,000 continued to dominate 24-hour trading volume. Skews remained broadly neutral even as analysts stayed optimistic about further gains. Ether options showed a similar pattern.
Ethereum layer-2 related tokens led losses
Ethereum layer-2 related tokens were among the weakest names in the CoinDesk 100 after CoinDesk reported that Pudgy Penguins’ Abstract had become the second Ethereum layer-2 network to shut down in a week. Optimism’s OP fell 10% over 24 hours, the worst performance in the index. Mantle (MNT) lost close to 10%, Arbitrum (ARB) fell about 7%, and PENGU, the token tied to Abstract’s parent, dropped more than 7%.
Solana ecosystem, Cardano and DeFi tokens also fell
Solana (SOL) held up better than most major tokens, down about 1% over 24 hours, but tokens built on its network did not. Liquid staking token JTO fell nearly 8%, and DEX aggregator token JUP lost 6%.
Cardano’s ADA dropped 7.5% over 24 hours to around $0.26. That marked a retreat from Monday’s level above $0.27, which had been its highest since May. The decline came even after news that Cardano now allows token issuers to freeze, seize and restrict assets.
DeFi tokens were also under pressure. Uniswap’s UNI fell nearly 9%, liquid staking token LDO lost 8%, and both PancakeSwap’s CAKE and yield-trading token PENDLE dropped close to 8%.
SAND, STX and XMR were among the few gainers
SAND bucked the broader market for the second time in a week, rising 9% over 24 hours to lead the CoinDesk 100. CoinDesk noted that SAND had already jumped 37% on Oct. 2. Bitcoin layer-2 token STX added 4%, while Monero’s XMR rose about 1%, leaving them among the few larger tokens still in positive territory.