Bitcoin holds steady near $64,000 as monero, hyperliquid outperform

Bitcoin held near $63,600 after Wednesday’s in-line U.S. inflation print proved enough to calm nerves, but not enough to move markets decisively in either direction.

The largest cryptocurrency has added 0.30% since midnight UTC, while the broader crypto market capitalization dropped 0.54% over 24 hours to $2.18 trillion.

July CPI came in at 3.4% year over year, matching forecasts. Core inflation also eased, with the annual reading slipping to 2.5% from 2.6%. The producer price inflation figure due at 12:30 UTC may provide more impetus to a lackluster market.

As for U.S. equities, S&P 500 index futures gained 0.13% while Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.

Derivatives positioning

• Futures market churn continues: 24-hour volume stands at $147 billion, up 6% on the day, but cumulative open interest (OI) across all cryptocurrency futures has held flat near $116 billion.
• $XRP positioning stays elevated: $XRP futures OI is perched at 2.67 billion tokens, the most since October, for a third straight day. The 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) remains negative, pointing to bearish bets being executed at market prices more than bullish ones. These paint a bearish picture, flagging a possible drop below $1. There's a silver lining, though: The annualized perpetual funding rate is near 8%, pointing to a bias toward bullish bets.
• $ADA and BCH show heavy bearish tilt: Both coins are seeing funding rates of -10% or lower, pointing to a clear investor preference for bearish positions. They both also show negative 24-hour CVD, indicating aggressive selling. This is particularly notable for $ADA, whose OI remains just shy of the recent record high of 2.79 billion tokens, suggesting traders are adding fresh short exposure near record participation levels, not just unwinding old longs.
• $AVAX flips from gainer to loser: Avalanche's $AVAX, one of the top OI gainers earlier this week, is the biggest OI loser of the past 24 hours. Others include LTC, LINK and SOL.
• Implied volatility stays muted: Options-based implied volatility for bitcoin and ether remains near its recently hit year-to-date lows, suggesting traders aren't expecting a big move in the short term.
• Upside bets still surface: In BTC's case, someone bought a large number of call options at the $65,500 strike, paying $1.07 million in initial premium. This is an ultra-short-term bullish bet; the calls expire Aug. 15.

Token talk

• XMR is up 3.15% since midnight UTC at around $404, extending its weekly run of more than 11% as the privacy coin continues to outperform the broader market.
• HYPE is up 1.75% since midnight at $57, continuing a steady grind higher with a 2% gain on the week.
• FET is up 0.84% since midnight, while NEAR added 0.94%, as a handful of mid-cap altcoins outperform the two largest coins, bitcoin and ether.
• CRV is giving back some of Wednesday's surge, falling 8.38% over 24 hours to 25 cents. Still, it remains up more than 22% on the week after breaking above a months-long descending trendline.
• DeFi token MORPHO was one of the weaker performers, losing 1.51% since midnight.