Bitcoin reversed an early Thursday rebound as a sharp selloff in U.S. Treasuries pushed the 10-year yield to its highest level since 2007, keeping pressure on cryptocurrencies for a second straight day.
BTC traded around $83,344, down 1.23% since midnight UTC after failing to hold its recovery. The move followed a rise in the 10-year Treasury yield to levels last seen in 2007, weighing on both crypto and U.S. equities before buyers emerged during Asian and European trading.
The weakness extended across major cryptocurrencies. Ether declined 1.55% to $2,659.02, XRP dropped 2.87%, and Solana fell 1.61% to $113.14. Smaller tokens briefly benefited from a modest European-session recovery but later turned lower, with NEAR and HYPE falling 3.32% and 3.94%, respectively.
The dollar index rose 0.13% to 101.24, its highest level since July. Gold slipped 0.71% to $4,257, while U.S. stock futures also remained under pressure. S&P 500 futures declined 0.61%, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell more than 1%.
Derivatives Market
Selling remains dominant: Short positions represented more than 52% of 24-hour taker volume, which climbed 10% to $250 billion. Open interest, however, fell nearly 6% to $149 billion. The combination suggests that traders are primarily closing existing positions rather than building a large number of new shorts.
BTC open interest contracts sharply: Bitcoin futures OI declined 6% as the asset’s price fell 3% over 24 hours. Since the OI figure is notional, its faster decline compared with price indicates that actual contracts are being closed. The data points more toward long-position unwinding than fresh short accumulation.
Binance whales show a different picture: The whale long/short account ratio on Binance has moved back above 1 to 1.30, while the whale position ratio has remained below 2 for two consecutive days. Large accounts appear less aggressive on the sell side, either remaining sidelined or positioning against the wider market decline.
XRP tracks BTC’s deleveraging: XRP’s notional OI is falling faster than its price, suggesting traders are closing positions. ETH and SOL are behaving differently, with their OI declines roughly matching their respective price losses, pointing more toward falling position values than active deleveraging.
CVD signals aggressive selling: The 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta remains negative for major assets such as BTC and ETH, showing that aggressive sellers are outweighing buyers. XRP, SUI and AVAX have recorded particularly weak readings, indicating concentrated selling pressure.
LTC bucks the trend: Litecoin has gained nearly 8% over 24 hours, while its futures OI, measured in tokens, has increased to 8.96 million, the highest level since Jan. 18. OI has been rising since Sept. 19. Price gains accompanied by higher coin-denominated OI suggest fresh long positioning rather than simply short positions being closed.
Options markets remain relatively calm: Thirty-day implied volatility for bitcoin and ether remains within recent ranges, while short-term implied volatility is still low compared with realized volatility. Despite weaker spot prices, options traders are not signaling widespread panic.
Demand for protection increases: Bitcoin’s one-week options skew has turned positive, reflecting stronger demand for downside protection. Ethereum has shown a similar move, matching the broader defensive tone across markets.
$17 billion options expiry ahead: More than $17 billion worth of BTC and ETH options are due to expire on Deribit Friday, with most positions currently in the money. Whether traders roll their contracts into later expiries or allow them to settle could influence volatility heading into the weekend.
Token Movers
Litecoin continued to outperform despite the broader market decline, rising 8.1% since midnight UTC and 6.2% over the past 24 hours. Traders are positioning ahead of next July’s block reward halving, with historical bottoms generally occurring six to 12 months before such events.
Ethereum Classic advanced 7.6% to $9.42, while Morpho gained 4.1% to $2.67.
Losses were concentrated among tokens that had posted strong gains earlier in the week. Venice, an AI inference token, dropped 5.2% since midnight and 9.6% over 24 hours to $28.71. Lighter fell 4.2% since midnight and 2.1% over 24 hours to $5.09, while Pump.fun declined 4.1% on the day and 11% over the rolling 24-hour period.
Hyperliquid fell 3.9% to $90.39, while NEAR lost 3.1% to $4.20. Venice was down 8.7% over 24 hours despite being among the week’s stronger performers.
XRP and Bitcoin Cash recorded the largest declines among major cryptocurrencies, each falling 2.7% since midnight UTC to $1.46 and $328.56. XRP was down 8.3% over 24 hours, while Bitcoin Cash lost 6.8%, reversing some of its gains following Wednesday’s CME futures announcement.
