Bitcoin Holds Near $81,700 as Altcoins Recover and Pepe Surges
Bitcoin edged up 0.5% to around $81,700 since midnight UTC, while several altcoin sectors posted stronger gains. The CoinDesk 80 index rose 1.4%, and memecoins advanced 2.9%, reflecting a broader recovery across the crypto market.
Ether (ETH) gained 0.9% to approximately $2,401, while Bitcoin (BTC) remained relatively steady. The CoinDesk 80 (CD80) index added 0.7%, and the memecoin gauge climbed 2.9%.
The rebound followed Thursday’s technology-led market sell-off, when the Nasdaq Composite plunged 2.6% in its steepest one-day decline since June. Asian equities were mixed on Friday. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.3%, China’s CSI 300 gained 1.7%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.25%.
Investors are preparing for the Federal Reserve’s Oct. 27–28 policy meeting, with Brent crude near $113 adding to concerns about inflation. Crypto ETF flows are also under scrutiny after U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs registered $635 million in outflows on Thursday, according to SoSoValue. That reversal followed more than $1 billion in inflows during the first three days of the week.
Futures Trading Slows as Open Interest Recovers
Crypto futures volume declined 19% over 24 hours, while liquidations fell 23% after both measures jumped the previous day. Open interest rose 1% following an earlier decrease, suggesting traders are beginning to rebuild positions rather than simply exiting the market.
The long-short taker volume ratio showed a slight preference for selling, with short-side activity accounting for 51.6% compared with 48.4% for longs.
Open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta, which tracks the balance between aggressive buying and selling, also moved closer to neutral. Nearly all tokens recorded readings within 0.05% of zero, a marked change from the negative readings seen across most assets on Thursday. Gold-backed token XAUT remained an exception, with its reading near -0.25%.
Bitcoin and Ether See Fresh Position Building
Futures open interest for Bitcoin and Ether increased by around 1% even as their prices changed little. The combination suggests some traders are opening new positions amid relatively stable prices.
Liquidations eased significantly, falling by approximately two-thirds for BTC and one-third for ETH. Bitcoin’s funding rate rose to 0.0067% from 0.0041%, indicating that long traders are paying more to maintain their positions. Ether’s funding rate remained flat.
Funding conditions also shifted for BNB, SUI and DOGE. BNB and SUI had negative funding rates of -0.0048% and -0.0036%, respectively, on the previous day, meaning short traders were paying longs. All three tokens now have positive funding rates, and their prices have risen, leaving long traders responsible for funding payments.
Meanwhile, open interest continued to fall in mZEC, SOL, XRP and DOGE, suggesting positions are being closed beyond what price changes alone would explain. ZEC saw the largest decline, with open interest dropping 8% as its price fell 1.5%. The move marked a second consecutive day of substantial position exits.
Commodity Futures Attract More Capital
Open interest in gold, silver and crude oil futures increased for a second straight day. Gold and silver prices declined while their funding rates remained positive, meaning long traders continued to pay to hold their positions.
Crude oil futures moved in the opposite direction, with open interest rising alongside a 1.4% price increase. Negative funding indicated that short traders were paying long traders. XAUT displayed the strongest selling imbalance among the tokens tracked, recording the most negative open-interest-adjusted CVD.
Monero’s (XMR) funding rate also cooled after reaching one of the highest levels on the 24-hour heatmap. Its return to more typical levels suggests that the recent buildup in leveraged positions has eased.
Bitcoin Options Favor Calls While Ether Traders Seek Protection
Bitcoin’s most actively traded options included the Nov. 27 $98,000 call and the Dec. 25 $88,000 call. Five of the six leading contracts were calls with strike prices above Bitcoin’s current market price. The only put among them was a $76,000 contract expiring Oct. 30.
Ether options showed stronger activity in puts. The two most-traded contracts were puts, led by the Oct. 26 $2,200 option, which recorded approximately 9,000 contracts. Trading volume alone, however, does not establish whether traders were buying or selling these contracts.
Ether’s one-week 25-delta put-call skew climbed to around 13%, indicating that puts were significantly more expensive than calls. Bitcoin’s equivalent measure moved in the opposite direction, declining to approximately 4% from a mid-month peak near 14%.
The divergence suggests demand for downside protection has eased in Bitcoin options but increased in Ether markets.
Pepe Leads Memecoin Gains
Pepe (PEPE) jumped 14%, delivering the strongest performance in the CD100 and its biggest daily advance in a month. The Ethereum-based memecoin extended its weekly gain to 23% and its monthly increase to 16%, although no clear catalyst was identified.
Other major memecoins also advanced, but by smaller amounts. Floki (FLOKI), Bonk (BONK) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) gained between 3.3% and 4.9% on the day, while remaining down by as much as 16% over the month.
PEPE’s trading volume reached approximately $353 million over 24 hours, around 10% above its level at the same time the previous day.
Layer-1 tokens Polkadot (DOT) and Cosmos (ATOM) each rose more than 5%, extending their weekly gains beyond 6%. Their monthly performance diverged, with DOT down 2.5% in October and ATOM up 3.6%.
DeFi tokens also recovered following Thursday’s losses. Uniswap (UNI) climbed 3.5% to around $7.25, while Ethena (ENA) rose 2% to approximately $0.20.
Some of the CD100’s weakest monthly performers joined the rebound. DoubleZero (2Z) gained 2.5%, and Monad (MON) advanced 4.3%, though both remained sharply lower for the month at 49% and 31%, respectively.
CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season indicator increased to 58 out of 100, recovering from Monday’s reading of 54. The improvement points to firmer sentiment across the altcoin market while Bitcoin remains confined to a relatively tight trading range.
