Bitcoin advances, holds above key technical level that ether, solana can't break through

Bitcoin rose Thursday, and its share of the total crypto market, its dominance rate, gained alongside a meteoric rise in a lesser-known cryptocurrency.

The $BTC price advanced 2.4% in 24 hours to trade recently around $62,800. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) added 2.3% to 1,690 and the CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) led gains with a 2.7% increase.

$BTC's dominance rate has risen to 59% from last week's low of 57.9%, a sign of renewed capital flowing into the largest cryptocurrency as major altcoins struggle. The bitcoin price has held its 200-week average even as other majors such as $XRP, ether ($ETH) and solana (SOL) trade below the key technical line, suggesting strengthening bearish momentum in altcoins.

In the wider market, Audiera's BEAT token jumped another 57%, taking the seven-day gain to over 500%. Audiera is a Web3 entertainment and rhythm gaming platform built on BNB Chain that treats AI characters and virtual idols as economic participants.

The protocol announced on X that onchain activity is surging, driven by consistent token burns and rising wallet participation. However, some users on social media have voiced concerns about concentrated token ownership and potential pump-and-dump risks.

The other big gainer is Velvet's VELVET token, which has surged roughly 800% in 30 days.

Derivatives positioning

• Bullish crypto futures bets continue to get squeezed. Over the past 24 hours, exchanges liquidated $378 million, with more than $207 million coming from long positions.
• Open interest (OI) in bitcoin and ether futures has remained largely stable, indicating little appetite for fresh leverage. In zcash ($ZEC), open interest has fallen to 2.28 million tokens, extending its pullback from recent highs above 2.5 million. This reflects a lightening of positioning as $ZEC’s recovery from Friday’s sub-$300 low has stalled. The token has retreated from $480 to around $430 in just two days.
• The 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD) presents a mixed picture. Tokens like $BTC, XMR, $ETH, HBAR, and SHIB recorded positive CVDs, showing buyers lifting offers. Meanwhile, TON, XLM, HYPE, TRX, $XRP, and several others saw negative readings.
• $BTC’s 30-day implied volatility index (BVIV) remains steady below 50%, suggesting traders don’t expect volatility related to tomorrow's SpaceX IPO to spill over into crypto. Ether’s volatility index (EVIV) is also easing from Friday’s peak.
• On Deribit, bitcoin and ether puts continue trading at a premium to calls across all major expiries. The $58,000 $BTC put expiring June 13 was the most actively traded contract in the past 24 hours.

Token Talk

• Velvet's VELVET token has surged roughly 800% in 30 days, more than doubling in the past 24 hours alone.
• The token is riding the rush into pre-IPO perpetual futures, synthetic contracts that let traders bet on the valuations of SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic before the shares start trading. The timing tracks SpaceX's expected June 12 debut at a reported $1.75 trillion valuation.
• DefiLlama now tracks 14 similar markets across SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic and Quantinuum on venues including Injective, Hyperliquid and Crypto.com, and Velvet reaches them by routing through outside platforms TradeXYZ and Ventuals rather than building its own. Injective launched the format back in October 2025.
• The contracts carry real risk. They are synthetic derivatives that convey no shares, dividends or voting rights, and their prices come from data feeds that can be thin and can drift far from actual funding rounds or any eventual IPO price. A synthetic SpaceX contract on Hyperliquid flash-crashed about 45% on Thursday.
• The VELVET token itself is drawing scrutiny. Lookonchain flagged concerns over the linkage between its spot and futures markets and heavy selling pressure after the spike, and the price whipsawed between $0.29 and $1.07 in a single day.
• The protocol holds about $653,000 in deposits against a $339 million market cap, a wide gap between the token's valuation and the money actually using the platform.