The crypto market fell on Tuesday, with bitcoin trading at $62,300, having lost 2.5% since midnight UTC, while ether (ETH) fell more than 4% to $1,650.
The selloff follows Monday’s slide in tech stocks, with another day in the red heralded by Nasdaq 100 futures, which have plunged 2.5% since midnight.
Tech stocks are struggling due to profit-taking and the risk of higher bond yields, according to Patrick Munnelly, market strategy partner at TickMill.
Altcoins fared worse than bitcoin and ether, with tokens like ethena (ENA) and hype (HYPE) losing 5% to 6% and $717 million in selloffs across the market, leading to exaggerated declines.
The dollar index (DXY) rose to its highest level in more than a year, hitting 101.15, the highest since May 2025.
Derivatives positioning
- The most notable data in derivatives is the 10% increase in open interest (OI) in SpaceX perpetuals listed on Hyperliquid, Binance and other exchanges, while the price has fallen 15%.
- This combination validates the bearish trend and suggests the deployment of leverage on the short side. The OI surge is the highest among major tokens, a clear sign of increased preference for traditional asset trading over blockchain rails.
- SpaceX futures are also now the sixth largest in the world, ahead of several prominent coins like ZEC, but still behind BTC, ETH, XRP, and others.
- XRP futures open interest rose to 2.38 billion tokens, revisiting eight-month highs. These continued capital flows are accompanied by a nearly 2% drop in the token over the week, and follow last week’s 5% drop.
- As with SpaceX, this combination validates the bearish trend. In fact, even more so, because the OI-adjusted 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) is negative for the second day in a row, a sign that the price action is led by traders shorting at market prices rather than passive limit orders.
- Traders continue to reduce exposure to BTC futures. Open interest has fallen to 720,000 BTC from 742,000 BTC last week. It peaked at 800,000 BTC earlier this month.
- In ether, OI futures have bounced from five-week lows to 14.13 million ETH, but overall positioning remains light compared to the May 28 peak of 15.98 million ETH.
- Generally speaking, sellers seem to dominate most of the top 25 coins. Most of these coins have a negative OI-adjusted 24-hour CVD.
- Traders are also likely to keep an eye on bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, which has risen from 40%. The increase suggests greater demand for options. The Ether Volatility Index, EVIV, shows a similar pattern. Increases in volatility indices are often a feature of bearish price trends.
- In the options market, the structure is long calls (or bullish bets) ahead of Friday’s quarterly expiry. However, these long positions accumulate losses, given the collapse of spot prices throughout the quarter. Meanwhile, put options, or bearish bets, remain in-the-money or in-profit.
- Call option biases show that the market continues to pay for downside protection, a sign of persistent and cautious sentiment.
symbolic talk
- Privacy coins Dash (DASH) and Monero (XMR) showed strength despite Tuesday’s cryptocurrency sell-off, with DASH losing just 0.2% since midnight and XMR about 0.7%.
- The same cannot be said for zcash (ZEC), a rival privacy coin that was hit by an AI-inspired exploit earlier this month. ZEC lost 4.2% over the same period, falling in line with the broader altcoin market.
- AI tokens FET, RENDER, and TAO also struggled, falling 3% to 5% as negative sentiment from tech stocks spread to cryptocurrencies.
- One positive for investors is that the average cryptocurrency Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently at 39.05, suggesting “oversold” conditions that could pave the way for a rebound or relief rally later in the day.
