Bitcoin extends 7-day advance to roughly 25%

Bitcoin $BTC$79,831.30 climbed more than 4% over the past 24 hours to cross the $80,000 level for the first time since May and extending its seven-day advance to roughly 25%. The wider CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index added 2.7% on the day.

The crypto rally started last week after the U.S. Treasury said it would at least double the size of buybacks of long-dated bonds, and accelerated as spot crypto buying and deepening liquidity pointed to “meaningful capital deployment,” according to Glassnode.

Still, analysts at Bitfinex struck a cautious tone, noting that roughly $3 billion in crypto short positions were liquidated in two days while bitcoin network transactions remained near eight-year lows.

Gold, meanwhile, kept climbing. It’s now at a three-month high of $4,650 an ounce, while Brent crude shed more than 2% in the past 24 hours as markets appear to dismiss the U.S.’ widening crackdown on Iran through its “economic D-Day.”

Derivatives Positioning

• The crypto rally has paused since the Asian trading session. Even so, futures positioning remains firmly bullish, with long positions accounting for more than 51% of total taker flow. Takers are traders who remove liquidity from the order book by executing orders at the best available prices.
• Bitcoin traders have little appetite for leverage. Total $BTC futures open interest remains in the low-700,000 $BTC range after falling sharply during last week’s rally, when a large number of short — or bearish — positions were squeezed out. That restraint could be constructive: elevated leverage often increases the market’s vulnerability to sharp, two-way volatility.
• Ether and XRP futures markets are showing a similar pattern. Solana’s ($SOL) open interest, meanwhile, has risen 4% over the past 24 hours, though at 66.14 million $SOL, it remains broadly within its recent trading range. Capital inflows could accelerate if $SOL succeeds in establishing a foothold above $100. The token’s price has ranged between $70 and $100 since February.
• CVD shows aggressive shorting: Sellers have looked to re-establish their dominance in the past 24 hours. That’s evident from the 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD), which is negative for most top coins, including $BTC, $ETH and ADA. It shows that more traders are shorting ether at market orders rather than passive limit orders.
• Volatility spike stalls: Volatility (options) sellers look to be making a comeback, capping gains in bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV. The index has dropped to 45% from 49% on Friday. Ether’s volatility index is seeing a similar pattern.
• Bullish flow in options: In the options market, some traders paid millions to bet on a rapid bitcoin price rise above $82,000. Bitcoin and ether’s 24-hour volume rankings also show a bias for calls or upside exposure. Still, seven-day skews for bitcoin and ether remain negative, highlighting a persistent demand for downside protection, according to Laevitas.

Token Talk

• Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) is the standout performer over the past 24 hours, rallying 12.5% after opening its AI-agent tokenization platform to Solana. The rollout lets agents raise capital, set fees and transact through their own wallets.
• Stacks STX$0.2677 surged 16%, the strongest move among the group, despite the absence of a clear news catalyst.
• Polygon (POL) gained 12%, seemingly after co-founder Sandeep Nailwal posted that the team behind the project is advancing a proposal to reform staking and tokenomics.
• Injective INJ$5.8515 rose 10%, extending gains that followed its affiliate’s SEC transfer-agent registration. Solana ($SOL), meanwhile, added 5.1% amid continued ETF inflows and a network upgrade.
• Aave AAVE$128.90 and Ethena (ENA) bucked the broader rally, falling 8.5% and 6.4% without clear project-specific catalysts. Morpho MORPHO$2.6574 lost 7.9%, while ether.fi (ETHFI) slipped 1.3% following a roughly 30% weekly rally.