Strategy’s latest bitcoin purchase failed to trigger a fresh move higher in BTC. After the company disclosed that it bought 1,550 BTC for $101 million, bitcoin was still trading near $62,600 on Tuesday, little changed from Monday. A rebound of about 4% on Sunday had briefly pushed prices above $64,000 on some venues, including Coinbase, but the move did not hold.
The company, the largest publicly traded holder of bitcoin, said Monday that its total stash had climbed to 845,256 BTC. That purchase was roughly 48 times the 32 BTC it sold in the final days of May. Even so, the market showed little reaction.
Spot recovery fades as broader risk appetite stays weak
Bitcoin’s flat price action did not help the rest of the market either. The CoinDesk DeFi Select Index fell 1.8% over 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 80 Index lost 1.3%. Daniel Reis-Faria, CEO of ZeroStack, said the recent bounce in bitcoin showed there is still buying interest on pullbacks, but investors are not committing capital with the same confidence seen earlier this year.
He said the bigger driver remains the macro backdrop rather than Strategy’s purchases alone. Investors are watching inflation and interest-rate expectations ahead of next week’s FOMC meeting, because those factors shape how much risk they are willing to take across asset classes, including crypto.
Futures volume slips, liquidations drop sharply
Derivatives data also pointed to a cautious market. Total crypto futures volume fell 1.3% to $190.7 billion in the past 24 hours, while open interest was almost unchanged at around $103 billion. Liquidations dropped 48% to $301 million, a sign that the more aggressive leverage had already been flushed out of the system.
Across major tokens, including bitcoin and ether, the 24-hour cumulative volume delta, or CVD, remained negative. That suggests sellers are still driving price action in the broader market. Open interest in BTC and ETH stayed close to Monday’s levels, with no major expansion in positioning.
ZEC stands out as short-squeeze risk builds
ZEC was one of the more notable names in futures trading. Open interest rose about 5% to 2.47 million tokens, the highest level since May 26, while the token traded at $472 after recovering sharply from lows below $300 last week. Its 24-hour CVD turned positive, showing buyers were lifting prices with market orders.
At the same time, annualized perpetual funding rates in ZEC stayed deeply negative at around -45%. That means short sellers still hold firm control over positioning. If the price keeps rising, the cost of holding those shorts rises with it, setting up the possibility of a short squeeze.
WLD positioning stays elevated as options favor downside protection
Open interest in WLD remained just below last week’s record of 963.6 million tokens, signaling crowded positioning and the potential for larger price swings. On volatility, BVIV and EVIV, the 30-day implied volatility indexes for bitcoin and ether, kept pulling back from Friday’s highs, suggesting panic has eased. Even so, first-week implied volatility in both assets remained elevated ahead of Wednesday’s U.S. CPI release.
On Deribit, the $60,000 BTC put remained one of the main areas of activity across several expiries over the last 24 hours. One-week risk reversals were still heavily tilted toward puts, with BTC puts trading at an implied volatility premium of 8 volatility points over calls. Traders are still paying up for downside protection.