bitcoin is around $103,000 after recovering from Wednesday’s sub-$100,000 level. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) is up 1.8% in 24 hours.
Still, the largest cryptocurrency remains in a technical downtrend from the Oct. 6 all-time high of $126,000, having formed a lower high of $116,000, as well as consecutive lower lows.
The altcoin market has fared even worse, as evidenced by bitcoin’s dominance rising back to 60% after falling to 57% in September.
Several tokens remain well below critical support levels, including and which registered falls of more than 20% during the past week.
The recent sell-off was driven by the strength of the US dollar following murmurs of indecision from the Federal Reserve in terms of the rate cut cycle.
Derivatives positioning
By Omkar Godbole
- More than $300 million in leveraged crypto futures bets, mostly short positions, were liquidated in 24 hours.
- Zcash leads open interest (OI) growth, while BTC and ETH show moderate activity.
- The OI in futures for prominent altcoins like XRP has declined, while non-serious tokens like PUMP are seeing double-digit increases, a dynamic often seen before the market drops.
- ZEC funding rates remain deeply negative, indicating a bias toward short positions, possibly as holders hedge against a sudden correction following its strong rally.
- Bitcoin CME futures positioning is light, with OI at its lowest level since late September; ether OI has also declined from record levels.
- Near-dated BTC and ETH options on Deribit show bearish jitters: Some BTC traders are buying $80,000 puts.
symbolic talk
By Francisco RodrÃguez
- A new governance proposal on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid is generating intense debate in the protocol’s community channels.
- Known as HIP-5, the proposal seeks to reserve a portion of the exchange’s revenue to support a broader set of ecosystem tokens, potentially altering the protocol’s existing fee distribution model.
- Right now, 99% of Hyperliquid’s revenue is used to buy back its native token, HYPE. Instead, HIP-5 would reserve up to 5% of total protocol fees for a second assistance fund, AF2. That fund would purchase tokens from emerging projects in the Hyperliquid ecosystem, such as PURR, Kinetiq, and Felix.
- Decisions on which tokens to back and in what quantities would be made by HYPE participants through governance votes. The impact is estimated to be a daily reduction of $150,000 in HYPE buybacks.
- Critics argue that opening up the protocol’s revenue to outside projects could lead to abuse. One user, Altoshi, said on
- Others say the plan could boost developer activity on Hyperliquid and increase participation in governance. The proposal has not yet gone to a formal vote.
