The cryptocurrency market recovered from a mid-week lull on Thursday, with bitcoin rising 1.2% since midnight UTC to $63,000, while ether (ETH) advanced 0.75% to $1,755.
The move followed gains in the US stock market, as Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 2.6% in the last 24 hours despite escalating tensions between the US and Iran.
US Central Command said it hit 90 military targets in the latest round of airstrikes, which took place 24 hours after President Donald Trump said the ceasefire had ended.
Markets initially sold off at the time, but cryptocurrencies remained resilient, recovering from oversold territory to extend a relatively good run since the beginning of the month.
Bitcoin is now 9% higher than June’s monthly close and a selection of altcoins have continued to outperform those of light (LIT) and ether.fi (ETHFI) rising around 35% over the same period.
Derivatives positioning
- The cryptocurrency futures market is taking a breather, with 24-hour volume falling almost 20% to $191 billion and open interest (OI) stable near $106 billion.
- Bitcoin’s overnight recovery to nearly $63,000 is accompanied by a decline in open interest in major dollar- and USDT-denominated futures to 266,000 BTC from 272,000 BTC. These diverging trends show investors’ reluctance to make leveraged bets in such a volatile macroeconomic environment. The same goes for ether, XRP and solana.
- OI in Canton Network CC token futures increased for the third day in a row, with a total of 271 million tokens, the most since May 31. The token continues to fall and, as noted yesterday, the simultaneous rise in OI futures points to an influx of short positions or bearish bets.
- Activity in perpetual futures tracking the S&P 500 index is picking up again, with OI rising to the highest level since SpaceX debuted on the Nasdaq nearly a month ago.
- The BTC and ETH 30-day implied volatility indices are under pressure again, snapping a two-day winning streak in a sign of renewed options supply and expectations of calm in the market.
- On Deribit, BTC and ETH put options remain more expensive than call options on all time frames, reflecting bearish concerns. Sentiment on Wall Street is the polar opposite: The average bias in S&P 500 stock options shows a record bias for calls or bullish bets.
