Smaller altcoins outpaced the majors as bitcoin and ether continued to trade in a choppy range, with market attention shifting toward lower-cap tokens.
Leading the advance was BTW, the native token of Bitway, a bitcoin-compatible layer-1 blockchain that uses proof-of-stake consensus and includes decentralized finance, or DeFi, infrastructure. BTW rose 25% over the past 24 hours and is up 170% over the past 30 days.
CoinDesk said the token has also gained traction on social media after Binance Wallet’s “Booster Season 5” campaign ended on Oct. 2. The campaign offered rewards for deposits and may have helped lift retail engagement.
The move was part of a wider rotation into smaller altcoins. Filecoin’s FIL and LayerZero’s ZRO gained 12% and 10%, respectively, over 24 hours, and both are up 50% or more over the past four weeks. Midnight’s NIGHT token added 8% over the same 24-hour period.
At the other end of the table, SKY, VVV and DASH were the three weakest performers among the 100 largest tokens by market capitalization.
Bitcoin stays range-bound with $84,000 in focus
Bitcoin traded at $85,900 at the time of writing after touching lows near $85,000 earlier in the day. While BTC, ETH and other large cryptocurrencies remained stuck in a range, smaller tokens drew the stronger bids.
“A break below $84K would signal a victory for the bears, and a break below the recent local lows at $83K would confirm this with even greater certainty. In this scenario, the leading cryptocurrency could fall to $80K fairly quickly,” Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at TheFxPro, said.
Derivatives positioning shows less heat
BTC open interest was roughly flat at $21.9 billion, compared with $22.0 billion previously. Funding rates cooled and were broadly running at 0% to 5% annualized across venues, down from the earlier 4% to 10% range. The 3-month annualized basis held steady in the 5% to 6% range.
According to the report, positioning has been stabilizing after Friday’s build. Leveraged longs are still in place, but the pressure in funding has eased.
Options flow remained tilted toward calls. The 24-hour put/call volume ratio stood at 62/38 in favor of calls. The 1-week 25-delta skew stayed negative at about -2%, and the at-the-money term structure was unchanged, still in contango, with the front end around 24% to 25% and rising to about 39% by late 2027.
Coinglass data showed $163 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, with a 63-27 split between longs and shorts. BTC led notional liquidations at $51 million, followed by Others at $21 million and ETH at $19 million. Binance’s liquidation heatmap pointed to $87,150 as a key level to watch if prices move higher.
Performance across the rest of the market was mixed
Privacy tokens outperformed broader weakness and led the day’s gains. Monero (XMR) rose 1.9% to $557, while Zcash (ZEC) gained 2.5% to move back above $1,350. CoinDesk said demand for anonymous layer-1 assets remained firm as macro sentiment shifted.
NEAR Protocol’s NEAR was also among the stronger altcoin performers, rising 4.5% over 24 hours to trade at $5.25. The report said buying interest returned after last week’s sharp market-wide pullback.
On the downside, Rain Protocol’s RAIN led the decliners, falling 5.6%. CoinDesk said selling pressure resumed after recent supply emissions and broader profit-taking across speculative low-cap altcoins.
Large-cap DeFi tokens traded slightly lower. Uniswap (UNI) slipped 1.4% to $8.89, while Chainlink (LINK) eased 1.2% to $14, reflecting quiet, range-bound consolidation across decentralized finance protocols.
Sui (SUI) gave back part of its recent gains, dropping 3.2% over 24 hours to trade near $1.20 as the layer-1 token continued to digest its recent multi-session volatility.