Bitcoin rebounded 0.7% from midnight UTC to around $77,200, with 68 assets in the CoinDesk 100 posting gains. Despite the recovery, the index remained 1.4% lower over the previous 24 hours.
BTC was trading near $77,300, according to CoinDesk Indices data, up 0.7% since midnight but still down 0.87% over 24 hours. The cryptocurrency remained roughly 6% below last week’s high of $82,284.
Ether gained 1.6% on Friday and was also higher over the past 24 hours, making it one of the few major cryptocurrencies to erase its overnight losses. Solana advanced just under 1% since midnight.
Market breadth improved sharply compared with Thursday. The CoinDesk 100 had 68 gainers, reversing the previous session’s 86-14 split in favor of declining assets. The index rose 0.5% but was still 1.6% lower over 24 hours, with 80 constituents remaining in negative territory during that period.
Memecoins recorded the strongest sector performance, with the memecoin index rising 0.73% since midnight UTC. Speculative assets again posted the largest moves, although this time they moved higher.
Traditional markets also moved upward. S&P 500 futures rose 0.48%, Nasdaq futures gained 0.56%, gold advanced 0.74% and silver increased 0.92%, while the Dollar Index was unchanged. The U.S. August consumer price report was due at 8:30 a.m. ET, making it the last major economic release before the Federal Reserve’s Sept. 15-16 policy meeting.
Derivatives Positioning
Total open interest in crypto futures dropped to $59.5 billion from $62.4 billion on Wednesday, while 24-hour trading volume reached $94.2 billion, according to Coinalyze. Liquidations over the past day totaled $256.3 million, compared with $142.3 million in the middle of the week.
Bitcoin futures open interest remained near $25 billion, up 0.12% over 24 hours and representing 42.1% of total market open interest. Coinalyze data indicates that BTC open interest peaked around $26.8 billion on Sept. 4 and has gradually declined since then, suggesting that traders have been reducing leverage steadily rather than experiencing one major liquidation event.
Zcash experienced the biggest deleveraging among major tokens. Its open interest fell 20.1% to $1.4 billion as ZEC dropped 9% to $1,112.10. Liquidations reached $17.2 million, while funding turned negative at -0.0016%, making Zcash the only major token with a negative funding rate.
Bitcoin generated $60.3 million in liquidations, while Ether accounted for another $46.5 million. Together, the two cryptocurrencies represented more than 40% of total liquidations.
Funding rates remained positive but relatively muted. Bitcoin’s aggregate funding rate was 0.0036%, while the predicted rate stood at 0.0026%. The aggregate long-to-short account ratio was 1.114, with longs accounting for 52.67% and shorts 47.29%, showing that positioning remained close to balanced.
Hyperliquid’s HYPE token and XRP each recorded approximately 5% declines in open interest over the last 24 hours, bringing their totals to $2.5 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively.
Token Performance
Theta Network led the CoinDesk 100, rising 11% since midnight UTC to $0.19 and gaining 6.9% over 24 hours.
Raydium, the Solana-based decentralized exchange token, climbed 10% during the day to $1.60 and was up 18% over 24 hours. It marked Raydium’s third consecutive session as the index’s top performer, following gains of 5.8% and 8.5% earlier in the week.
Lighter, the token associated with a perpetuals exchange, gained 5.8% to $4.54, recovering part of its previous 15% decline over 24 hours.
Zcash rose 3.4% since midnight to $1,116.06 but remained 8.8% lower over 24 hours, marking the largest daily decline among cryptocurrencies with market caps above $10 billion.
Morpho advanced 3.6% to $2.34 and was 2.3% higher over 24 hours, making it one of the few mid-cap tokens to post gains across both periods.
CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” index stood at 38/100, keeping it in neutral territory after reaching 51/100 on Tuesday.
