bitcoin cooled in Asian time on Thursday, trading at $68,600 after testing $70,000 during a fierce US session on Wednesday.
As February draws to a close, the largest cryptocurrency remains in a trading range that has persisted since the beginning of the month, having tested $62,500 on Tuesday and $71,100 higher on February 15.
It’s worth noting that bitcoin broke out of a similar trading range to the upside in January, catching traders on the run before the price fell from $98,000 to $60,000 over the next three weeks, forming a lower high in this recent bearish cycle.
Some tokens overshadowed the broader altcoin market. HYPE is up 4.3% since midnight UTC as it retreats towards $30, while Decreed Privacy Token (DCR) rose to its highest level since November after adding 4%.
U.S. stock index futures are little changed, and NVIDIA’s earnings report failed to generate sustained upside amid lingering concerns that AI’s valuation is overstated.
Derivatives positioning
- The total open interest (OI) of the crypto futures market has increased by over 6.6% to almost $100 billion. This is greater than the increase in the total cryptocurrency market capitalization, indicating that there has been an influx of fresh capital into the market.
- ADA and ETH futures stand out with OI increases of 21% and 15%, respectively. Several other altcoins have seen increases of 9%.
- Bitcoin’s OI growth of over 3% appears to be largely due to the rise in spot price.
- BTC and ETH’s 30-day implied volatility indices, BVIV and EVIV, remain near weekly lows, indicating calm in the market and supporting continued price gains.
- Annualized perpetual funding rates for most tokens, including bitcoin and ether, have stabilized slightly above zero, indicating a renewed bias toward long and bullish bets.
- On Deribit, the bitcoin price rebound triggered demand for call options with strike prices ranging between $85,000 and $90,000. However, the broader options market continues to trend toward puts, a sign that bearish reservations still remain.
- The $60,000 put option remains the most popular bet, with theoretical open interest of more than $1.4 billion.
symbolic talk
- Layer 1 token recorded a 21% gain in the last 24 hours. While the move ran out in European time, investors are showing appetite ahead of the network’s reward halving in March.
- Uniswap’s governance token (UNI) also rose, adding 15%. The move can be attributed to a new governance vote that proposes increasing the protocol’s revenue capture across several Layer 2 networks.
- One token that particularly underperformed was which lost more than 6% and the liquidation continued until European time. There is no clear bearish catalyst for the move, reflecting the persistent vulnerability of altcoins due to lack of liquidity.
- Crypto Majors and ether (ETH) is up about 8.5% since Wednesday morning. The moves were intriguing because open interest for both assets increased, suggesting they were backed by leverage rather than spot purchases, according to Coinalyze.
