Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin Edges Higher as Risk Appetite Remains Muted

Crypto prices were largely flat over the past 24 hours, with bitcoin stabilizing after pulling back from last week’s post-Fed peak, while altcoins continued to lag amid persistent risk-off sentiment.

The market started the new week much as it ended the previous one, with muted price action and sentiment slipping back into the “extreme fear” zone.

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $89,900, rebounding modestly from Sunday’s low near $88,000 but still showing weakness after topping out at roughly $94,300 following the Federal Reserve’s 25-basis-point rate cut last week.

Activity across the altcoin market remains subdued. Ether (ETH) and TRX posted gains of less than 2% over the past day, while more than half of the top 100 tokens declined during the same period, reflecting fading volatility and selective risk-taking.

Broader market gauges painted a mixed picture. The CoinDesk 20 (CD20) Index edged up 0.16% on Monday, while the wider CoinDesk 80 (CD80) slipped 0.77%, underscoring continued underperformance among smaller, higher-risk assets.

Derivatives positioning

Open interest increased over the past 24 hours in DOGE, HYPE, SOL and ETH, while ZEC, BNB, AAVE, TRX and several smaller tokens saw outflows. Bitcoin open interest remained largely unchanged.

DOGE futures open interest climbed to 10.80 billion DOGE, the highest level since Nov. 20, accompanied by moderately positive funding rates, suggesting bullish positioning.

XRP open interest rose more than 3% as the token hovers near the long-held $2 support level. Funding rates remain close to neutral, though a breakdown could invite short interest and push rates into negative territory.

Elsewhere, negative funding rates in XLM, MNT and HBAR point to short-dominated positioning. On Deribit, bitcoin’s front-end put skew has eased, while ether’s front-end puts remain comparatively expensive, implying a bearish bias in the ETH/BTC pair. Block trading activity included BTC calendar spreads and ETH put spreads.

Token talk

Altcoins broadly underperformed bitcoin over the past day, with several tokens—including AERO, TAO, ZEC and SKY—posting losses of up to 4.5%.

Liquid staking tokens were a relative bright spot. Lido (LDO) and ETHFI gained around 2%, with ETHFI’s move linked to the launch of a promotional campaign offering 10% ETH cashback to ether.fi card users.

Despite the modest improvement, CoinMarketCap’s “altcoin season” index sits at 19 out of 100, only slightly above last week’s low of 16 and well below September’s peak of 78. The reading indicates that investors continue to favor bitcoin and other large-cap tokens over more speculative assets.

CoinGlass data reinforces that trend, showing bitcoin dominance has climbed steadily in recent months, rising from 56.8% in September to 58.4%, even as thousands of new tokens have entered the market.