Bitcoin prices settled near $77,500 on Friday as volatility cooled and traders began unwinding leveraged positions, according to coindesk.com.
The cryptocurrency's price action followed a failed breakout attempt near the $080,000 mark on Wednesday. While the broader trend remains constructive, with the price printing a series of higher highs and higher lows through April, the recent move suggests a pause in upward momentum.
Bitcoin futures open interest fell by more than 6% to 744.3K BTC over a 24-hour period. This decline indicates that traders are reducing their leveraged bets as the spot price pulled back from recent highs.
Derivatives data shows rising bearish positioning in the market. Bitcoin's 24-hour open interest–adjusted cumulative volume delta has flipped negative, meaning sellers are hitting the bid more than buyers are lifting the ask.
Annualized perpetual funding rates remain slightly negative, indicating the dominance of bearish short positions. Additionally, there is persistent demand for downside protection in options markets.
On the Deribit exchange, bitcoin and ether risk reversals continue to show a bias toward put options across all time frames. This indicates persistent downside hedging and upside volatility selling via covered calls.
Altcoin performance diverges
While major assets like ether (ETH) matched bitcoin's muted performance, losing roughly 0.9% since midnight, some altcoins showed significant movement. Zcash (ZEC) stood out with rising open interest and volume.
Open interest in Zcash futures climbed nearly 7.5% to a 10-day high of 1.88 million tokens. The 24-hour trading volume for the privacy-focused token jumped by 80%, supported by its recent listing on the Robinhood trading app.
In contrast, the broader DeFi sector faced downward pressure. Lido (LDO) led losses in the sector, falling between 3% and 3.8% since midnight UTC following a $290 million exploit of KelpDAO last weekend.
Volatility indices for both bitcoin and ether have hit multi-month lows. Bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility index (BVIV) dropped to 42%, its lowest level since January 31, while ether's index fell below 65% for the first time since February 1.
Other major cryptocurrency futures, including those for Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP), have also seen lackluster performance.
Macro context
U.S. stock futures were mixed, with Nasdaq 100 futures rising by 0.5% on the back of strong tech earnings, while S&P 500 futures slipped 3 basis points.
The Dollar Index (DXY) remained relatively unchanged, despite U.S. President Donald Trump confirming that the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has been extended by three weeks. The dollar had previously fallen roughly 0.5% when the ceasefire was first announced on April 16.
