Bitcoin slipped below the $70,000 threshold during European trading after failing to sustain momentum above $71,000, as geopolitical uncertainty tied to the Iran conflict continued to weigh on market sentiment. In contrast, artificial intelligence–related tokens gained traction, driven by strong retail participation.
The largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, traded near $69,500 by mid-morning in Europe after giving back Tuesday’s gains following a rejection around $71,750.
Since midnight UTC, bitcoin has declined about 0.55%. The drop was relatively mild compared with losses across several altcoins. Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash slid roughly 4.5%, while decentralized finance lending protocol Aave fell about 2.1%.
In traditional markets, gold and the U.S. dollar were largely unchanged, while U.S. stock index futures ticked up roughly 0.15%.
Investor sentiment continues to be shaped by geopolitical tensions involving Iran and Israel. Conflicting comments from Donald Trump earlier this week added to uncertainty surrounding the conflict.
Oil markets also remained volatile. Crude prices dropped to around $81 per barrel on Tuesday before rebounding to roughly $89 during Wednesday’s European trading session.
Derivatives positioning
Bitcoin’s inability to hold above $70,000 has proven costly for traders holding leveraged bullish positions. Over the past 24 hours, more than $220 million in crypto futures positions have been liquidated, with long trades accounting for most of the losses.
Open interest in dollar-denominated bitcoin futures across major exchanges declined to about 226,000 BTC from 233,000 BTC. The drop indicates that traders mostly reduced positions rather than aggressively betting against the market. A similar pattern has been observed in futures tied to Ethereum and Solana.
Meanwhile, derivatives activity in XRP has been increasing, with open interest climbing to 1.74 billion tokens — the highest level since Feb. 23.
Across the broader altcoin market, open interest has generally declined in the past 24 hours, pointing to capital flowing out of several alternative tokens.
However, futures tied to TRON, Conflux and Monero stand out with a bullish combination of positive funding rates and rising cumulative volume delta, indicating active buying in derivatives markets. Most other tokens continue to show flat or negative funding rates.
Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, has declined for three consecutive sessions. Despite the drop, its longer-term averages — the 50-, 100- and 200-day measures — are aligned in a bullish configuration, suggesting volatility could increase in the near term.
A similar setup is visible in ether’s volatility metrics. Meanwhile, Wall Street’s key volatility gauge, the CBOE Volatility Index, has climbed about 4% to 26, highlighting elevated risk in equity markets that could spill over into digital assets.
On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, open interest in bitcoin futures has declined to about $7.39 billion — the lowest level since September 2024. Ether futures activity has also dropped sharply, indicating that institutional demand for the two largest cryptocurrencies remains weak.
Options markets continue to reflect a cautious outlook. On Deribit, protective put options for bitcoin and ether remain more expensive than calls, though demand for downside protection has eased compared with early last month. Traders on decentralized options platform Derive are increasingly positioning for a potential rally above $80,000 while some continue selling put options.
Token talk
AI-linked tokens were among the strongest performers in Wednesday’s market.
The token Internet Computer surged more than 8% after securing a listing on the South Korean exchange Upbit. Following the listing, daily trading volume jumped from around $65 million to roughly $267 million as retail investors piled in.
Another AI-focused token, Fetch.ai, also recorded gains, rising about 6% over the past 24 hours.
Part of the sector’s positive momentum followed remarks from Jensen Huang, who said in a recent blog post that artificial intelligence represents an industrial buildout comparable to the electrification era.
Elsewhere, the broader altcoin market retreated. Decentralized finance tokens including Curve DAO Token and Jupiter each dropped about 6.5% during the same period.
Despite mixed performance across the market, overall crypto sentiment has started to improve. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index has climbed to 25 out of 100, moving back into the “fear” zone after spending more than a month in the “extreme fear” category.
The improvement reflects the crypto market’s relative resilience since tensions involving Iran intensified, with bitcoin and the broader digital asset market outperforming precious metals and U.S. equities since the beginning of March.
