Bitcoin Soars, Altcoins Sulk: Fed’s Big Move?

by

Markets

What to know:

  • BTC, ever the showoff, has hit $115,200, while ETH, the more modest sibling, sits at $4,160. 🎩💰
  • Market anxiety? Pfft. Volatility has dipped to 44%-a mere whisper of the chaos we’ve come to adore. 😏
  • Older tokens like ZEC, BCH, and DASH are basking in the glory, while newbies like plasma and aster are left in the dust, their value plummeting faster than a poorly timed joke. 🚪📉

The crypto markets, ever the drama queens, experienced a much-needed bounce on Monday, with bitcoin rising to $115,200 while ether traded at $4,160. 🤡📈

The rise? A mere anticipation of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting, where an interest rate cut is expected. How thrilling! 🎉

Bitcoin dominance continues to rise, demonstrating relative weakness across the altcoin market, although there were some outliers on Monday in the form of… well, nobody really cares. 🙃

Derivatives Positioning

By Jacob Joseph

  • The BVIV, that fickle friend, has slumped to 44%-a sign the market is finally taking a deep breath. 🌬️
  • The bias for Deribit-listed BTC put options has weakened across all tenors. However, longer duration risk reversals still remain slightly neutral to bearish. The same can be said for ETH, although at the short-end, the bias for ETH puts is still slightly greater than BTC. 🧠📉
  • Last week, traders continued to sell topside (calls) on the CME to collect premium and generate yield on their BTC longs. How delightfully unoriginal. 💸
  • Open interest in futures tied to most cryptocurrencies, excluding XRP, HYPE and HBAR, has increased in the past 24 hours, indicating capital inflows amid the price rally. Or as I call it, “the usual charade.” 🎭
  • Although bitcoin prices have climbed past their Oct. 21 high, the total open interest in USDT- and USD-denominated perpetual futures on major exchanges remains below the levels seen on Oct. 21. This divergence suggests that leveraged trader participation in the recent BTC rally has been limited. Or, as they say, “slow and steady wins the race.” 🐢

Token Talk

By Oliver Knight

  • The crypto market bounce ahead of Wednesday’s federal reserve rate decision reflected across the entire altcoin sector, with the likes of… well, nobody really cares, as they’re all just chasing the next fad. 🕵️♂️
  • There was also a notable rise in tokens issued in or before 2018 as… yawns… both rose by 8% and 9.5% respectively, while ether edged back into bullish territory with a surge to $4,150. 🧠💸
  • The reversal in price action was not felt in two newly-released tokens; plasma and aster both collapsed further to the downside as waning demand could not stifle wave upon wave of sell pressure. 🌊💣
  • Plasma initially rose to as high as $1.67 in the days following its launch, notching $3.3 billion in daily volume in the process. However, it now trades at $0.36 with daily volume tumbling to $297 million. A tale as old as time. 🎭💸
  • Aster, meanwhile, is trading at $1.07 having lost 43% of its value over the past month. It was initially positioned to be a rival to decentralized derivatives exchange HyperLiquid, but hype has since withered away after concerns surrounding the legitimacy of trading volume on the platform. 🧙♂️❓
  • Bitcoin dominance ticked up slightly to 59.1% on Monday, up from a low of 57.1% six weeks ago, suggesting that investors still prefer the more measured gains of BTC compared to more speculative altcoin bets. Or, as I call it, “the safe bet for the timid.” 🤷♂️

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2025-10-27 15:45