Bitcoin Touches 3-Month High Before Pullback as Altcoins Take a Breather

Bitcoin briefly climbed to $81,455 overnight, reaching its highest price since May 15 before retreating as Nasdaq futures weakened and gold continued to advance into the weekend.

BTC was recently trading near $79,850, down about 0.5% over the past 24 hours after touching $81,455. The move marked Bitcoin’s first test of that level since May 15, when BTC was rejected around $82,800 and subsequently fell to a low near $57,000.

The broader market backdrop remains relatively supportive. Gold gained 0.2% Friday, while silver advanced more than 2%. Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.3%, extending a divergence that has emerged since the U.S. Treasury announced its bond buyback program on Aug. 19. Bitcoin has climbed approximately 26% since that announcement.

Altcoins, meanwhile, moved lower across the board. Most tokens declined between 2% and 3% since midnight as market attention remained concentrated on Bitcoin. The Altcoin Season Index stands at 34 out of 100, indicating that the market remains firmly tilted toward Bitcoin rather than altcoins.

Derivatives Market Shows Mixed Signals

Futures activity remains choppy: Crypto futures markets have experienced more position rotation than fresh directional bets over the past 24 hours. Total open interest has remained slightly above $140 billion, while futures trading volume increased nearly 10% to $222 billion. The taker-volume ratio has turned mildly bearish, with short positions accounting for about 51% of market orders.

SOL open interest continues climbing: Solana futures have again outperformed Bitcoin and Ether in terms of open-interest growth. Open interest reached 70.88 million SOL, the highest level since early July, according to CoinGlass. However, SOL’s 24-hour open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta has turned negative, suggesting sellers are becoming more aggressive and are increasingly executing bearish positions at market prices.

CC leads altcoin positioning: CC recorded the strongest open-interest growth among altcoins, with futures positioning rising more than 5% over 24 hours. Open interest reached 328 million tokens, approaching March’s record of roughly 340 million. The elevated leverage could increase volatility. Unlike most of the market, CC’s 24-hour CVD remains slightly positive, indicating that buyers are still driving its price action.

Broader CVD remains bearish: Most cryptocurrencies, excluding CC, TRX and HYPE, have negative cumulative volume deltas. That suggests sellers continue to dominate trading activity across much of the broader market.

XMR funding points to crowded longs: Monero appears increasingly overheated, with annualized perpetual funding rates reaching 67%. The elevated rate reflects the premium bullish traders are paying to maintain leveraged long positions, suggesting the XMR long trade has become crowded.

Options Traders Show Limited Warsh Concerns

Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility gauge, BVIV, has fallen to 41% from a recent high of 50%. The decline indicates that options traders are not anticipating a major volatility shock from Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech.

Options activity also remains tilted toward bullish bets. On Deribit, Bitcoin call options dominated the 24-hour volume rankings, with the $85,000 call expiring Sept. 26 recording the highest activity. Ether options also showed a preference for calls.

Trump Token Leads the Day

U.S. President Donald Trump’s TRUMP memecoin surged 24% over 24 hours to roughly $2.80, making it the strongest-performing major token despite the absence of an obvious catalyst.

Open interest in TRUMP futures has increased 57% over the past week to $188.72 million, according to CoinGlass. The jump suggests leverage is playing a significant role in the token’s latest move as traders add long positions amid broader strength across memecoins.

Solana fell 2.6% since midnight UTC to around $106, giving back some of its 18% weekly advance. SOL moved back above $100 during last week’s rally for the first time since February and has managed to hold that level, although momentum has weakened heading into the weekend.

Zcash declined 2.4% since midnight but remains about 41% higher over the past seven days. The privacy-focused cryptocurrency was among the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s short squeeze, and its latest decline fits the broader trend of altcoins consolidating after strong weekly gains.

Monero moved against the broader market, rising 2.2% since midnight to approximately $464 and extending its weekly gain to 12.8%.

With the Altcoin Season Index at 34/100, Bitcoin remains the primary focus for traders. The market is likely to stay centered on BTC unless it can decisively break above the $82,000 level and trigger another leg higher.

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