Bitcoin remained range-bound around $74,000 as hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data strengthened expectations of a Federal Reserve interest-rate hike to nearly 90%. At the same time, spot Bitcoin ETF outflows entered a fourth consecutive day, while crypto derivatives liquidations recorded a significant increase.
Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $74,000 with little change since midnight UTC, recovering some ground after touching $72,700 on Tuesday. Ether (ETH) also remained relatively stable around $2,050. However, the CoinDesk Memecoin Index declined 1.2%, while the CoinDesk 80 Index lost 0.3%.
Cryptocurrencies underperformed the broader equity market as U.S. stock futures recovered during Wednesday’s early trading. Nasdaq-100 futures climbed 1.7% following better-than-expected quarterly earnings from AI cloud computing company CoreWeave.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States registered another $95 million in net withdrawals on Tuesday, extending their losing streak to four consecutive sessions, according to SoSoValue. BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for $78 million in outflows, marking its eighth straight day of investor redemptions.
Meanwhile, expectations of a Federal Reserve rate increase at the Dec. 8–9 policy meeting rose to approximately 90%, based on CME FedWatch data. The repricing followed October’s U.S. Consumer Price Index report, which showed inflation increasing 0.4%, exceeding economists’ estimates. Over the latest 24-hour period, Bitcoin declined 0.7%, while Ether dropped 1.7%.
U.S. Treasury markets were closed Wednesday for the Veterans Day holiday.
Derivatives Market Positioning
Crypto liquidations climb sharply: Cryptocurrency futures liquidations increased 288% to $725 million over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass, following Tuesday’s stronger-than-expected inflation figures. Trading activity also accelerated, with volume rising 24% to $204.8 billion. Open interest, however, declined 1% to $127.2 billion, suggesting traders were closing existing positions.
Bitcoin leverage shows weaker bullish conviction: Bitcoin open interest decreased 0.2%, while its price slipped 0.6%. Funding rates remained positive at 0.0078%, equivalent to an annualized 8.6%, but stayed below the typical 0.01% level. This suggests long traders continued paying short traders, although bullish positioning was less aggressive than usual. The taker buy/sell ratio stood at 0.97, indicating sellers maintained control. Bitcoin liquidations totaled $200.5 million, with long positions representing 85% of the losses. The annualized basis for December futures contracts remained between 5% and 7%.
Ether sees heavier liquidation pressure: Ether recorded $253 million in liquidations, exceeding Bitcoin’s total despite having approximately half its open interest at $25.2 billion. Its open interest dropped 3.6%, compared with a 1.7% decline in price, pointing to a broader reduction in market exposure. Ether funding rates remained positive at 0.0059%.
Altcoin derivatives face further withdrawals: Zcash (ZEC) led altcoin liquidations with $40.3 million as its price dropped approximately 13%. Its open interest contracted 10.5%. XRP open interest declined 3.8% against a 1.8% price decrease, while HYPE open interest fell 3% as its price lost 2.2%. The relatively larger declines in open interest indicate that traders were pulling capital from these markets.
Traditional finance assets dominate derivatives activity: Four of the 10 most actively traded perpetual futures contracts over the past 24 hours were tied to traditional financial assets, according to Coinalyze. The list included the Direxion 3x Semiconductor ETF (SOXL) with $8.4 billion in volume, SanDisk with $4.4 billion, gold with $2.4 billion, and Nvidia with $2 billion. SOXL’s trading activity exceeded the combined market interest reflected in individual Solana and XRP contracts. Meanwhile, open interest in Nvidia perpetual futures increased 50% to $411 million after the company’s shares declined 5.5% on Tuesday.
Put options attract greater demand: On Deribit, Bitcoin put options expiring between Nov. 12 and Nov. 27 recorded 1.5 times the trading volume of call options. Eight of the 10 most active contracts were puts, with strike prices ranging from $69,000 to $74,000. The Nov. 27 $69,000 put attracted the highest activity. Friday’s expiry showed a different pattern, with far out-of-the-money calls dominating open interest. The largest positions were concentrated at the $81,000 strike, representing 8,306 BTC, and the $84,000 strike, representing 5,231 BTC.
Options volatility remains stable: At-the-money implied volatility stood at approximately 36% for Nov. 27 options and 38% for Nov. 13 contracts. However, 25-delta puts carried a premium of four to five volatility points over comparable calls, suggesting investors continued paying more for protection against potential downside moves.
Token Market Developments
Telegram’s expanding crypto wallet ecosystem returned to market focus as gram (GRAM), the renamed toncoin, led the CoinDesk 100 with a roughly 5% gain since midnight UTC. The rally followed comments from Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who revealed that more than 700,000 wallets were created through the application within 48 hours.
Zcash (ZEC) experienced one of the steepest declines among major tokens, losing approximately 14% over 24 hours. The drop coincided with liquidations of leveraged long positions and capital withdrawals from Grayscale’s Zcash ETF. Monero (XMR), meanwhile, moved higher, gaining around 2% since midnight UTC.
Midnight (NIGHT), the privacy-focused blockchain connected to Cardano, advanced approximately 5% after its Ledger 9 upgrade went live on the mainnet earlier this week.
The broader altcoin market continued struggling to gain momentum as Bitcoin maintained its dominance. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index dropped to 40 out of 100 from 49 last Thursday, remaining well below the 75 level generally considered the start of an altcoin season.
Bitcoin’s market dominance increased to 60.5%, up from 59.9% on Friday, indicating that capital remained concentrated in the leading cryptocurrency rather than rotating into alternative digital assets. Meanwhile, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index stood at 26, reflecting persistent fear among market participants.
