The cryptocurrency market suffered a sell-off on Tuesday with bitcoin approaching its lowest level since June and ether trading at $3,480, the lowest since August.
The selling pressure caused around $1.4 billion in liquidations on derivatives exchanges, which at press time are performing better than in October, when Binance’s automatic deleveraging engine wreaked havoc by liquidating large numbers of traders.
One of the catalysts for the sell-off is the strength of the dollar, with the DXY index reaching 100 for the first time since July after rising from 96.2 in September.
The dollar has risen as analysts suggest the Federal Reserve will slow its rate cut cycle. This has led to a bearish reversal in risk assets like bitcoin and the broader crypto market.
Derivatives positioning
By Omkar Godbole
- Volmex’s Bitcoin Volatility Index, BVIV, which represents implied or expected 30-day price turbulence, is rising, tracking the golden cross of its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
- The BTC spot price has developed a negative correlation with volatility over the past year, meaning further gains in BVIV could be marked by price weakness.
- Positioning in ZEC remains elevated, with open interest (OI) close to all-time highs of around 1.59 million ZEC. However, funding rates have turned bearish, a sign that some traders are shorting futures, possibly against long spot positions.
- On the CME, futures linked to BTC and ETH continue to see divergent trends, with activity primarily concentrated in ether futures, where OI remains near all-time highs.
- On Deribit, BTC options show a bias towards puts on all time frames, a sign of persistent bearish concerns. Ether options show optimism after February 2026 expiry.
- OTC flows on Paradigm included a call for ether expiring on November 7 at the $3,500 strike price.
symbolic talk
By Oliver Knight
- The altcoin market suffered a bruising Asian session with several tokens falling more than 15%, resulting in a $1.37 billion selloff, according to CoinGlass.
- HyperLiquid Rival Aster led the decline, falling 18% to $0.88. Interestingly, that’s below the price paid by Binance founder CZ, who announced a $1.8 million purchase at $0.90 over the weekend.
- “Every time I buy coins I get stuck in a losing position, a record 100%,” CZ wrote on Tuesday X.
- Numerous tabs including are now back at critical support levels that led to a bounce two weeks ago, although it’s worth noting that companies like solana and BNB have fallen to new lows.
- One sector that has outperformed the broader market has been privacy coins, with and both still in green for the month.
- On Tuesday there were also exceptional increases in and two tokens considered “dinosaur coins” by some as they were launched in 2017 and 2014 respectively. Both tokens have privacy features and appear to be following in the footsteps of XMR and ZEC.
- DCR is up 146%, while DASH is up 65% on significant volume, showing that traders may be moving away from the weaker, broader market.
