The cryptocurrency market displayed a positive trend during the Asia session on Monday, with bitcoin climbing above $92,000 after remaining in a narrow range below $90,000 over the weekend.
The leading cryptocurrency has reversed the sell-off seen on Friday and is nearing last week’s high of $94,200.
U.S. equity index futures also showed a gain from Sunday evening’s opening, increasing by about 0.2% as the market is poised for a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut on Wednesday, with a 87% probability of a 25 basis point reduction based on CME data.
While bitcoin and ether are up by 3%-4% in the last 24 hours, the altcoin market remains sluggish, lacking speculative catalysts to drive momentum.
Derivatives positioning
- BTC’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, is stable at approximately 50%, indicating no signs of panic ahead of the forthcoming Fed decision.
- ASTER and ENA are leading in open interest growth for futures related to major tokens.
- Perpetual funding rates for major tokens, including BTC and ETH, maintain a positive trend, signaling a preference for bullish leveraged positions.
- This positive sentiment could partly arise from the unwinding of the cash and carry arbitrage’s short futures legs.
- On Deribit, bitcoin and ether puts are trading at a premium compared to calls, reflecting persistent downside concerns.
- Specifically for BTC, the $20K put is the second most sought-after options bet in the June 2026 expiry options.
- Demand for BTC call spreads and strangles was noted in block flows, while call calendar spreads have prevailed in the 24-hour flow for ETH.
Token talk
- The “altcoin season” indicator dropped to a historic low of 19/100 on Monday, revealing that investors are hesitant to invest in tokens beyond the market frontrunners following a challenging sell-off over recent months.
- This trend is also visible in the comparison between the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index and the CoinDesk 80 (CD80), with the latter including a broader range of altcoins.
- The CD20 has gained 1.34% since December 1, whereas the CD80 has declined by 1.37%.
- The memecoin and metaverse indexes have underperformed this year, down by 53% and 62%, respectively, suggesting that the market has moved past viral memes and cartoon character non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
- Conversely, privacy coins, such as zcash has emerged as the top performer among the top 100 crypto tokens in the last 24 hours, surging by 17% and compounding a 600% rally year-to-date.
- In contrast, —the native token of its namesake’s data availability blockchain—has plummeted more than 87% in value this year due to a lack of activity and recent layoffs.
