The crypto market fell to the lowest levels in more than two weeks, with bitcoin falling below $67,000 and ether (ETH) approaching $2,000. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) lost 2.2% since midnight UTC, hitting its lowest level since March 9.
The drop coincided with a drop in US stocks. Nasdaq 100 futures are now trading at 23,760, 10% below this year’s high from January.
The risk-averse atmosphere was spurred by rising oil prices and fears that the war in Iran would not subside as quickly as many had hoped. Oil remains above $100 a barrel, fueling concerns about inflation.
Some sections of the altcoin market were hit harder on Friday, with companies like ETHFI losing 6% since midnight. WLD, WIF, SEI and FET lost between 3.6% and 4.7%.
Derivatives positioning
- Long bets on crypto futures, or bullish positions on the direction of the market, were the hardest hit by liquidations in the last 24 hours, with nearly $300 million liquidated, compared to just $50 million in short positions.
- This is the fifth time in 10 days that long positions have approached that punishing level, an indication that traders were predominantly positioned for the Iran war to result in a price rally that has not materialized.
- The price of XRP fell more than 2.5% in 24 hours, while futures open interest rose 2% to 1.95 billion XRP, the most since February 2.
- That combination represents renewed investor interest in shorting the falling market. The negative cumulative volume delta and sub-zero funding rates suggest the same.
- Futures linked to bitcoin, solana, dogecoin and BNB showed a bearish profile similar to XRP.
- Memecoin SHIB has the highest negative cumulative open interest volume delta among major tokens, indicating aggressive de-risking or short selling by traders.
- Canton Network’s CC token stood out with positive funding rates and a rise in OI futures, indicating growing demand for bullish exposure.
- Bitcoin and Ethereum’s 30-day implied volatility indices, BVIV and EVIV, continued to fall despite weak spot prices, suggesting that traders are not panicking yet and do not anticipate a turbulent sell-off.
- On Deribit, bitcoin options worth more than $15 billion expired early Friday. Therefore, the supposed price magnet related to the expiration of $75,000 is no longer valid, opening the doors for deeper declines amid a worsening macroeconomic outlook.
- Bitcoin and Ethereum put options are once again trading at a 6-8 volatility premium to call options across all expirations, risk reversal shows. Indicates strong demand for downside protection.
symbolic talk
- The altcoin market once again showed its fragility on Friday, failing to hold onto key support levels in a low-liquidity trading environment.
- The CoinDesk Computing Select Index (CPUS) was the worst-performing benchmark, falling 2.3%, while the bitcoin-dominant CoinDesk 20 (CD20) fell 1.2%.
- One token that bucked the downtrend was ONDO, which rose after Ondo Finance, an asset management company, said it agreed to tokenize five Franklin Templeton exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and bring them to the Ondo chain.
- The token is up more than 8% in the last 24 hours, although it has given back some of those gains since midnight UTC.
- The average Relative Strength Index (RSI) of all crypto tokens remains neutral despite the sell-off, suggesting that further declines are likely on Friday.
