The cryptocurrency market retreated during Asian and European hours on Monday, with bitcoin falling to $63,100 from over $64,300 at the weekly close at midnight UTC.
That’s a decrease of about 1%. The most pronounced losses hit the altcoin market. Lighter (LIT) led the cascade lower, falling 8% in its first big selloff since rallying more than 200% in the past two months.
The outflow of riskier assets was also felt in the stock markets. South Korea’s Kospi index lost 9.2% while SK Hynix, the memory chip maker that went public in the United States on Friday, fell 15%. Japan’s Nikkei and China’s SSE fell more than 2%.
The declines reflected renewed tensions in the Middle East as Iran and the United States fought for control of the Strait of Hormuz, and both nations launched airstrikes against each other.
US stocks are also indicated to open lower, with Nasdaq 100 futures and S&P 500 futures losing 0.9% and 0.25% since midnight, respectively.
It’s worth noting that heading into the weekend, Bitcoin and the broader crypto market enjoyed a period of bullish price action, moving away from immediate danger, and Monday’s sell-off could also be attributed to profit-taking.
Derivatives positioning
- The positioning of Bitcoin derivatives remained stable this week. Open interest (OI) remained stable at $17 billion, while the three-month annualized basis remained at 3.8%.
- Funding rates changed little to positive in multiple locations, with Bybit being the notable exception with roughly -13% annualized in BTC offenders. The stable OI coupled with a firm foundation and constructive financing suggests that the market is maintaining its positioning without significant new leverage being added in either direction.
- Options positioning has tilted bullish. The 24-hour bid/sell ratio stands at 64/36 in favor of calls, and while the one-week delta bias remains elevated at 16%, it has narrowed from 26% a week ago, suggesting call demand is declining rather than increasing.
- The at-the-money term structure remains in contango, with the front end around 34%-35% and the long end at ~43% through mid-2027, implying that traders see a calm long-term volatility environment.
- Coinglass data shows $253 million in 24-hour liquidations, with a 76-24 split between long and short positions. BTC ($70 million) and ETH ($60 million) led in terms of notional settlements.
- The Binance liquidation heatmap indicates $62,000 as the central liquidation level to monitor, in case of a price drop.
symbolic talk
- AI tokens FET and NEAR showed strength, rising around 1.5% each even though the rest of the market suffered losses.
- Hyperliquid (HYPE) followed its rival LIT, falling about 3.3% to $65.1, its lowest point since July 2.
- CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” indicator reflects recent volatility. The measure has a reading of 56/100 after rising from last week’s average of 50. This implies increased risk sentiment on the part of investors after months of heavy losses.
- One of the most volatile tokens lately has been which suffered a grueling 39% drop in June before rebounding more than 40% in early July. It has since retraced that change, losing 19% since July 4.
- Solana-based decentralized exchange Jupiter (JUP) has also struggled lately, losing more than 15% over the past week as daily trading volume dropped to just $17 million, down from 2025 when it regularly topped $500 million.
