Altcoins Lead Crypto Gains as Bitcoin Trades Below $83,500
Smaller cryptocurrencies are outperforming major digital assets on Monday, with the CoinDesk 80 index advancing about 3% over 24 hours. The gain is more than double the 1.2% rise posted by the CoinDesk 5.
Bitcoin (BTC) remains below $83,500 after climbing above $84,000 on Sunday. Ether (ETH) has risen approximately 2.5% to trade near $2,560.
The strongest gains are emerging from the least liquid part of the cryptocurrency market. CoinDesk research indicates that, a year after the October 10, 2025, flash crash, Bitcoin and Ether order-book depth has returned to pre-crash levels when measured in dollar terms. Altcoin liquidity, by contrast, continues to weaken.
“Market makers have returned to majors,” Joshua de Vos, CoinDesk’s research lead, said in Saturday’s report.
Institutional flows have moved in the opposite direction. SoSoValue data shows that U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced $681 million in net outflows last week, their largest weekly withdrawal since June. Wednesday and Thursday accounted for most of the selling. Spot Ether ETFs have also faced sustained withdrawals, with no daily inflows since September 28. The resulting nine-day outflow streak is their longest since June.
Oil prices have eased, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures declining roughly 2% to $90 per barrel. The retreat followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that Russia would provide 300,000 metric tons of diesel to international markets, representing a partial relaxation of sanctions. The next major macroeconomic focus is Wednesday’s U.S. consumer price index (CPI) release.
What Derivatives Data Shows
Futures volume is surging without a comparable increase in outstanding positions. Trading volume reached $126 billion over the past 24 hours, up 81%. Open interest (OI), representing the dollar value of active contracts, increased just 2.44% to $145.8 billion. This indicates that traders are turning over positions at a faster pace without significantly expanding overall exposure.
Aggressive buying has edged ahead of selling. Long positions accounted for 52% of 24-hour taker volume, compared with 48% last week. Taker volume reflects trades executed immediately against existing orders and can help show which side is acting more aggressively.
Zcash futures activity is high, but the increase in new positions is modest. ZEC ranked fourth in futures volume over 24 hours, with $5.46 billion in turnover, behind Bitcoin, Ether and SOL. Its price rose 6%, while OI gained 7%. Because open interest is dollar-denominated, a rising token price can increase the metric even without many new contracts. Adjusting for that effect suggests open contracts grew by only about 1%. Annualized funding is 10%, meaning long traders are paying short traders to maintain their positions. Cumulative volume delta (CVD), which compares aggressive buying with selling, remains only slightly positive.
NEAR’s rally has stronger support from new futures positions. The token climbed 10%, while OI rose 17%, implying an increase of roughly 6% in the number of open contracts. Funding is positive, as it is for ZEC. NEAR also ranks second among major tokens for 24-hour OI-adjusted CVD, suggesting that aggressive buyers are helping drive the move. Its price is at its highest level since December.
Bitcoin and Ether continue to show limited appetite for leverage. Open interest for both assets has changed little over the past day and remains well below levels reached earlier this year. Trading volumes are within normal ranges.
Options traders are not pricing in a major near-term move for BTC or ETH. Bitcoin’s implied volatility index, BVIV, has struggled to rise above 40% after bouncing from year-to-date lows near 34% last week. Ether’s index is showing a similar trend. Implied volatility reflects expectations for future price fluctuations, and the subdued readings suggest options markets are not anticipating a sharp move.
Oil shorts on Hyperliquid appear heavily concentrated. Traders betting on lower oil prices are paying long positions annualized funding rates of 100% or more. Funding payments help keep perpetual futures aligned with spot prices, and the side with more crowded positions generally pays the other. These elevated rates suggest short positions are expensive to maintain and could unwind rapidly if oil prices rise.
Bitcoin put options dominate activity on Deribit. Contracts with strike prices between $55,000 and $80,000 account for a large share of Bitcoin’s 24-hour options volume, indicating demand for downside protection. Put options gain value when prices fall and are often used as insurance against losses. Ether options trading is more mixed, with both calls and puts appearing among the five most-traded contracts.
Altcoin Developments
Starknet (STRK) has climbed 76% over the past week, including a 33% jump on Friday and a further 54% advance on Saturday. The rally comes as the network considers leaving Ethereum to operate as an independent, quantum-resistant layer-1 blockchain. Leverage has helped fuel the move, but profit-taking emerged Monday, pushing STRK down 7.7%.
LayerZero (ZRO) gained 21% over 24 hours to $2.41, reaching its highest price since May 2025 as its market capitalization approached $1 billion. The advance appears to be a recovery from oversold conditions rather than a reaction to a specific announcement.
Zcash (ZEC) has also risen despite appearing in the transaction trail connected to the Ledger reseller supply-chain attack. Funds stolen in the incident were routed through Tornado Cash and subsequently converted into ZEC using NEAR Intents. Estimated losses linked to devices sold by Malaysian reseller CryptoBilis range from $86 million to $93 million. Ledger has confirmed that at least one affected device contained an unauthorized hardware implant.
CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” indicator has climbed to 66 out of 100, its highest level in more than a year. The reading reflects growing speculative interest in smaller cryptocurrencies while Bitcoin remains in a consolidation range between $80,000 and $88,000.
