Bitcoin and ether notched modest overnight gains, yet fragile altcoin breadth, sizable liquidations and persistent short-term hedging demand point to a market that remains wary.
Bitcoin advanced roughly 0.9% to hover near $67,000 after briefly dipping to $66,000 on Wednesday. Ether posted a similar increase, trading around $1,970 after bouncing from $1,924, but continues to struggle with the $2,000 psychological threshold.
Since the sharp decline on Feb. 5, volatility has eased considerably. Two weeks of range-bound price action have left traders debating whether the market is forming a durable macro floor ahead of a push back toward 2025 highs, or simply consolidating before another downward move.
A Mar-a-Lago forum hosted by World Liberty Financial failed to provide a bullish spark, despite attendance from CFTC Chairman Michael Selig and senior executives from Goldman Sachs.
From a technical perspective, bitcoin remains in a broader downtrend following its early October peak near $126,600. The price structure still reflects a pattern of lower highs and lower lows, punctuated by choppy consolidation phases.
Derivatives picture
Open interest has stabilized at $15.38 billion, suggesting the market has moved beyond aggressive deleveraging into a steadier phase.
Retail sentiment has shown a mild recovery, with funding rates turning flat to slightly positive — Binance funding has climbed back to around 4%. Institutional positioning remains subdued, as the three-month annualized futures basis holds near 3%.
In options markets, call and put volumes are evenly balanced, signaling neutral positioning. The one-week 25-delta skew has edged up to 12%, while the implied volatility term structure remains in short-term backwardation. Elevated front-end implied volatility indicates traders are still paying up for near-term downside protection, even as longer-dated contracts stabilize around 49%.
Data from CoinGlass shows $218 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, with 77% attributed to long positions. Bitcoin led with $75 million in liquidations, followed by ether at $53 million and other tokens at $22 million. Binance’s liquidation heatmap highlights $67,400 as a key upside level where further liquidations could be triggered.
Altcoins lag
Altcoins are under pressure in the current low-liquidity environment.
WLFI dropped more than 10% in a classic “sell-the-news” move following Wednesday’s event. Axie Infinity’s AXS token is revisiting its Feb. 6 lows after sliding 5.9% since midnight UTC. Lending protocol Morpho’s MORPHO token has surrendered all of Wednesday’s gains, trading near $1.39 after a 4.2% overnight decline.
Market breadth remains weak, with 97 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies — excluding stablecoins and tokenized gold tokens — trading in the red over the past 24 hours.
Sentiment indicators continue to reflect caution. The crypto fear and greed index stands at 11 out of 100, up slightly from February’s low of 6, but still deep within “extreme fear” territory.
