coindesk.com
Bitcoin $BTC$80,108.77 fell 1.4% to around $80,100 on Thursday after dipping to $79,600 before catching a bid. The altcoin market suffered worse, with ether $ETH$2,321.76 losing 1.7% while the CoinDesk Memecoin Index dropped by 3.4%.
South Korea’s Kospi index led the selloff, tumbling by 1.2% as Samsung Electronics shares dropped 4% despite a record quarterly profit, with the chipmaker disappointing investors on shareholder returns. Nasdaq-100 futures fell 1.1% after Alphabet missed earnings expectations.
While the Fed held interest rates on Wednesday, as expected, two officials dissented in favor of a quarter-point increase and Chair Kevin Warsh declined to signal what might come in December. The September PCE inflation report, the Fed’s preferred gauge for price changes, is due later.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in $137 million on Wednesday, a third straight day of inflows, according to Farside Investors. They have added $423.7 million over the period.
Derivatives positioning
- Futures activity: Crypto futures volume jumped 21.8% to $198.8 billion over 24 hours, while open interest (OI) fell 1.9%. In other words, trading ran hot as positions were closed. Liquidations rose 84% to $337.4 million. The taker volume split is nearly even at 50.1% long and 49.9% short.
- $BTC and $ETH: $BTC fell 1.6% and its futures open interest fell 1.2%, so exposure shrank roughly in step with price and no large amount of money left the market. $ETH dropped 2.1% while its open interest slipped 0.7%. Funding is still positive in both, but has decreased from yesterday, a sign that the bullish tilt in perp trading is fading. $ETH liquidations of $71.6 million nearly matched $BTC’s $72.5 million, even though $ETH’s open interest is about half the size.
- Money into $BNB: $BNB’s open interest rose 1.7% even as its price fell 0.8%, which means money came in against the drop. Volume surged 70%. Funding flipped from positive to negative and is the most negative among the top coins. Negative funding means shorts pay longs, so perp traders are leaning bearish. SUI is a smaller version of the same pattern.
- $ZEC unwind: $ZEC’s open interest fell 12% as its price dropped 5.4%, so money left the contract, giving back yesterday’s build-up, when open interest jumped 13.9% on a 6.3% rally. Funding is still positive, so longs are still paying shorts and perp traders have not turned bearish.
- Funding cools: Most major coins still have positive funding, but rates have decreased from 24 hours ago. That means longs are paying less to hold their positions, so the bullish tilt in perp trading is cooling. $BNB is the most negative, and monero (XMR) was the most positive.
- CVD turns negative: Almost every major coin has negative 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD). That means market sell orders outweighed market buy orders relative to open interest, a flip from yesterday, when most coins were positive. $NEAR looks the most negative, with a sharp drop around midday.
- GOOGL jump: GOOGL, the perpetual contract tied to Alphabet’s stock, saw open interest jump 77% while its price fell 10%. Its volume surged nearly fivefold.
- Calls lead $BTC options: On Deribit, four of the six most traded $BTC options of the past 24 hours are calls, all with strikes above spot. The $82,500 call expiring Oct. 30 leads. The skew still points to demand for protection across all time frames.
- Puts lead $ETH options: Five of the six highest-volume $ETH options are puts, with strikes from $2,280 down to $1,500. The only call in the list is the $3,200 December contract. $ETH puts remain pricier than calls, reflecting downside concerns.
Token talk
- AI-linked tokens were among the hardest hit, with near $NEAR$4.4142, the blockchain pitched at AI applications, sliding 7.8% and bittensor (TAO), the decentralized AI network, falling 3.1%. The drops coincide with a roughly 10% pre-market decline in Alphabet shares after its negative earnings call.
- DeFi tokens fell more than the wider market, with raydium RAY$1.6575 falling 8.9%, jito JTO$0.3996 losing 6.8% and ethena (ENA) declining 6%.
- Jasmytcoin JASMY$0.003714, the Japan-based data and internet-of-things (IoT) token, fell 10%, the biggest drop among tokens on the CoinDesk 100, while dash DASH$50.60 and pump.fun PUMP$0.004374 lost around 6% apiece.
- Tron TRX$0.3312 was one of the only tokens in the black, posting a 0.5% gain since midnight UTC.
- CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” index fell to 54/100 from 60 on Wednesday.
