Altcoins outperformed Bitcoin as Celestia (TIA) rallied 16%, Injective (INJ) gained 7.7% and LayerZero (ZRO) climbed 7.3%. Bitcoin traded near $82,100 with little overall movement, while Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh offered no fresh clues about the central bank’s next interest-rate decision.
Bitcoin was changing hands around $82,100 on Friday, little changed since midnight UTC, after recovering from a brief decline to approximately $81,600 around 03:30 UTC. BTC remained above $80,000 following Thursday’s temporary dip below that threshold, its first such move in about a month.
The broader altcoin market posted modest gains. Ether rose 0.5% to nearly $2,450, while the CoinDesk 80 Index (CD80) advanced 0.46%. The Bitcoin-focused CoinDesk 5 Index (CD5) remained broadly unchanged.
Celestia led the market’s advance, followed by Injective and LayerZero. Approximately 80% of the cryptocurrencies included in the CoinDesk 100 Index (CD100) traded higher. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index also strengthened, climbing to 60 from 50 the previous day.
Asian equities recovered from Thursday’s sharp sell-off. South Korea’s Kospi finished the session up 2.05%, while Japan’s Nikkei gained 1.39%. S&P 500 futures remained little changed after the benchmark index ended a three-day losing streak.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh avoided signaling the central bank’s next move during a speech at the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok. CME FedWatch data showed the implied probability of an October rate increase falling to around 15%, down from approximately 30%. U.S. Treasury yields were broadly stable.
Derivatives Market Update
Futures trading slows as liquidations ease. Cryptocurrency futures volume dropped 20% over 24 hours to approximately $200 billion, while open interest rose 2% to $142.21 billion. Liquidations fell sharply to $311 million from nearly $1 billion the previous day. The combination of lower turnover and higher open interest suggests forced selling has moderated while traders continue to build positions.
Aggressive selling loses momentum. The 24-hour taker long-to-short volume ratio returned to a more balanced position after short-side transactions accounted for 52% of activity a day earlier. The change suggests that immediate selling pressure has diminished.
Bitcoin, Ether and Solana rise without a strong influx of new longs. Bitcoin’s dollar-denominated futures open interest increased by only 0.3% as its spot price gained 1%. This implies that the number of outstanding contracts edged lower. Ether and Solana displayed comparable patterns, with open interest growing more slowly than their respective spot prices. The rebound may therefore have been driven largely by traders closing bearish positions rather than opening fresh leveraged longs.
XRP traders close positions as prices advance. XRP’s futures open interest dropped 1% while its spot price increased 1.4%, indicating that contracts were being closed during the recovery. Its 24-hour open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD), which measures aggressive buying against selling at market prices, also remained negative. This suggests derivatives traders have yet to provide strong confirmation of the rebound.
Zcash leads in fresh bullish positioning. ZEC futures open interest surged 14%, exceeding the token’s 11.5% price increase and suggesting that traders added positions as prices climbed. Zcash also recorded the strongest positive open-interest-adjusted CVD among major cryptocurrencies, pointing to stronger aggressive buying. Tron (TRX), Tether Gold (XAUT) and Ether also showed positive readings, while Bitcoin was neutral and Uniswap (UNI), Hedera (HBAR) and XRP posted negative readings.
Funding rates indicate moderate bullish positioning. Annualized perpetual futures funding rates for major tokens ranged from 5% to 10%. The readings show that long positions remain favored, but funding has not reached unusually elevated levels. This suggests leveraged bullish positioning has yet to become excessively crowded.
Implied volatility declines further. Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, fell to 38% after reaching 42% the previous day. Ether’s implied volatility also moved lower. The declines suggest options traders are pricing in more subdued price swings, consistent with the relatively moderate funding rates.
Bitcoin traders hedge downside while Ether traders target higher prices. Derivatives platform Derive highlighted a large Bitcoin put spread traded earlier in the week that was positioned for a possible decline toward $78,000. On Deribit, the $80,000 put was the most actively traded option, showing continued demand for downside protection. Ether options activity was more optimistic, with the $2,600 call leading trading over the preceding 24 hours.
Token Performance
Celestia reaches a new yearly high. TIA, the native token of the modular data-availability network Celestia, climbed 16% to approximately $0.68, making it the strongest performer in the CoinDesk 100. The token has gained roughly 59% over four weeks and reached its highest price of 2026.
The rally coincided with Celestia Fibre recording a throughput benchmark of 3.07 terabits per second and the introduction of a proposed economic upgrade called the Sustainable Blob Economy.
Injective rises alongside trading activity. INJ, the token associated with the finance-oriented layer-1 network, advanced 7.7% to around $9.19. Although no single catalyst clearly explained the move, three U.S. exchange-traded fund applications linked to the token remain pending. CoinMarketCap data showed 24-hour INJ trading volume reaching $289.7 million, up 128% from the previous day.
LayerZero extends its upward momentum. ZRO, the token linked to the cross-chain messaging protocol, increased 7.3% to approximately $2.24. The advance continued a rally associated with its ATLAS trading infrastructure, which directs most of its fees toward purchasing and burning ZRO tokens. Ether.fi’s ETHFI token, linked to liquid restaking, also rose 4.2%.
Starknet records the steepest decline. STRK fell 9.6% to approximately $0.08, making it the weakest performer in the CoinDesk 100 after gaining 11% on Thursday. Stacks (STX), a Bitcoin-related layer token associated with staking, also declined 4.2%.
Major tokens deliver mixed results. Solana rose 1.2% to around $107, while XRP gained 0.5%. Monero (XMR) advanced 2.9% to approximately $565, whereas BNB traded with little overall change.
