The latest optimism over a potential Strait of Hormuz agreement has faded after President Donald Trump called for 50 years of compensation from Iran. Oil prices moved back toward $89 a barrel, while crypto and equities remained largely range-bound ahead of Wednesday’s U.S. CPI release.
The cryptocurrency market was mostly flat Tuesday after an overnight decline erased much of the earlier relief rally tied to hopes of a deal involving the strategic waterway.
Trump’s demand for five decades of compensation from Iran as a prerequisite for negotiations reduced expectations of an immediate diplomatic breakthrough. Brent crude climbed to $89.08, leaving the benchmark more than 12% above last week’s low.
Bitcoin gained 0.26% from the start of the UTC day but remained down 1.68% over 24 hours. Ether was also weaker, falling 2.4% over the same period despite outperforming BTC since midnight UTC. U.S. stock futures showed little movement as traders waited for Wednesday’s CPI report, which is expected to provide an important signal on the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate path.
Bitcoin also came under pressure from Strategy’s latest sale. The company sold another 1,690 BTC on Monday, marking its fourth straight week of reductions. Strategy has not added to its bitcoin holdings since June.
Derivatives Show Mixed Signals
Crypto futures activity accelerated, with 24-hour trading volume rising 51% to $143.15 billion. Total open interest, however, stayed near $115.6 billion, suggesting traders were actively rotating positions rather than establishing a large amount of fresh exposure.
The taker long-short ratio also moved back toward balance. Long and short market-order volume each represented roughly half of activity, reversing the bullish skew seen a day earlier.
XRP posted the largest increase in open interest among major tokens. Its active futures contracts expanded 14% to 2.72 billion XRP, the highest level since October. At the same time, the token remained close to losing the $1 threshold for the first time since 2024.
XRP’s negative 24-hour cumulative volume delta indicates that aggressive sellers are currently exerting more pressure than buyers. Short positions are being opened through market orders more actively than passive buying, although funding rates remain slightly positive.
LINK, ETH and HBAR were among the other tokens to record increases in open interest, while CC, ZEC and AVAX saw the biggest reductions.
Market-order data continued to favor sellers across much of the crypto market. Most major tokens, including Bitcoin, recorded negative 24-hour CVD readings. LINK and TRX were notable exceptions.
Funding rates remained uneven. Monero posted an annualized rate of about 39%, the strongest bullish reading among major tokens, while CC recorded a rate near -14%, pointing to a strong bearish bias.
Bitcoin’s implied volatility also increased. The 30-day BVIV index climbed almost 5% to 38.64%, breaking above the roughly 36% level that had acted as a floor for an extended period. The move came as BTC slipped back below $64,000.
Options traders are also becoming more cautious. One-week call skew for BTC and ETH on Deribit weakened and could turn negative. If Wednesday’s CPI figure comes in hotter than anticipated, that shift could reinforce expectations for higher interest rates to persist and add to downside pressure on risk assets.
Despite those developments, one-week implied volatility for Bitcoin and ether remains relatively low, suggesting traders have yet to price in a major market shock around the inflation release.
At the same time, options volume continued to favor upside exposure. The BTC $70,000 call expiring Sept. 25 and the ETH $2,000 call with the same expiry were among the most heavily traded contracts over the previous 24 hours.
Crypto Token Performance
Curve DAO’s CRV was one of the day’s strongest performers, gaining 9.49% over 24 hours and extending its weekly advance to 27.29%. The token has remained one of DeFi’s stronger performers despite weakness across the broader market.
Lighter’s LIT token rose 6.40% over 24 hours to approximately $2.43 and gained 2.26% from midnight UTC. It is now nearly 20% higher over the past week as the decentralized derivatives token recovers from its July selloff.
Chainlink’s LINK advanced 2.59% since midnight, extending its seven-day gain to 4.40%. The token’s performance comes alongside renewed institutional interest in blockchain oracle infrastructure and the expanding tokenized real-world asset market.
Zcash’s ZEC was among the weakest performers, declining 1.97% since midnight to around $486. The move gave back some of the gains from its recent period of outperformance. Other privacy-focused assets also struggled, with Monero down 0.72%.
The broader altcoin market showed a modest improvement in sentiment. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season index rose to 41 out of 100 from Monday’s 37 as traders appeared to rotate into tokens that had experienced deeper recent declines.
