The crypto market traded broadly higher ahead of Friday’s U.S. jobs report, with Bitcoin outperforming major cryptocurrencies as risk appetite strengthened.
Bitcoin was above $86,000 at 9:10 UTC, gaining 3.4% over 24 hours. Ether, XRP, Solana and BNB also advanced, but each posted smaller gains than Bitcoin.
Among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market value, SKY, AAVE and APT were the standout performers, rising between 7% and 10%.
Bitcoin dominance, which measures BTC’s share of the total cryptocurrency market, has moved closer to 60%. At the same time, USDT’s share has declined to about 6.3%. The combination suggests some traders are shifting capital away from stablecoins and into crypto assets, indicating greater willingness to take risk.
Attention is now turning to the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET. FactSet estimates suggest employers added 90,000 jobs in September, down from 162,000 in August. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.1%.
Beyond the headline employment figures, Bitcoin traders are watching the reaction in Treasury yields, particularly real yields after adjusting for inflation. The Sept. jobs report and the Oct. 14 CPI release could influence the outlook for longer-term borrowing costs.
Oliver Carding, head of marketing at Tesseract Group, which oversees $500 million, said he is using a 10-year real yield near 3% as a key level. According to Carding, a sustained rise above that level would increase the risk of Bitcoin returning to $80,000-$82,000 rather than extending toward $90,000.
Expectations for an October Fed rate hike have also eased. Markets now assign a 30% probability to a hike, compared with 70% previously, following dovish comments from New York Fed President John Williams and Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson. Lower rate-hike expectations can be supportive for assets such as Bitcoin.
However, those expectations could change if the employment report significantly beats forecasts. A stronger-than-expected payrolls number could push rate-hike bets higher and create renewed pressure on Bitcoin.
Derivatives Market
Bitcoin open interest rose to $22.4 billion from $20.9 billion a day earlier. Funding rates have also increased on several trading venues, reaching annualized levels of 9%-10% on Hyperliquid and OKX. Deribit’s three-month annualized basis remained above 6%.
The increase in open interest alongside higher funding suggests leveraged traders are adding long exposure.
Options positioning remained strongly tilted toward calls. The 24-hour put/call ratio was 88% in favor of calls, compared with 83% previously. The one-week 25-delta skew narrowed to about 1.5% from roughly 4%, while the at-the-money term structure stayed in contango, increasing from about 27%-28% at the front end to around 40% by late 2027.
CoinGlass recorded $344 million in crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours, compared with $100 million previously. Shorts accounted for 72% of the liquidations, while longs represented 28%. Bitcoin recorded $132 million, Ether $70 million and other assets $26 million. Binance’s liquidation heatmap showed $87,400 as an important level to monitor during a further Bitcoin advance.
Altcoin Moves
Quant fell about 15% over 24 hours to approximately $250 after a volatile week. The token had previously more than tripled during a multiday rally before traders began taking profits.
LayerZero and Aave gained about 11% and 9%, respectively. ZRO traded near $1.91, while AAVE reached roughly $182 amid buying interest linked to proposed protocol upgrades and fee-switch governance discussions.
Ethena and NEAR, which had been among the previous session’s strongest performers, reversed lower. ENA fell around 9% to approximately $0.25, while NEAR declined 8.6% and dropped below $5.
Memecoins also attracted selective buying. Dogwifhat rose 6.2% to around $0.26, while Pump.fun gained nearly 4% as speculative funds rotated within the sector.
Stacks and Midnight both retreated after recent rallies. STX declined about 5% to $0.38 following Wednesday’s executive leadership announcement, while NIGHT fell approximately 5.6% to $0.04 after advancing more than 20% earlier in the week.
