Bitcoin and ether edged higher overnight, yet muted altcoin participation, sizable liquidations and persistent demand for short-term hedges indicate traders remain on guard.
Bitcoin gained about 0.9%, trading near $67,000 after briefly slipping to $66,000 on Wednesday. Ether rose by a similar percentage to around $1,970, rebounding from $1,924 but still struggling to clear the key $2,000 psychological threshold.
Volatility has subsided since the Feb. 5 selloff, with two weeks of sideways consolidation leaving the market at a crossroads. Investors are weighing whether the lull signals another potential leg lower or the formation of a broader macro bottom ahead of a recovery toward 2025 levels.
A Mar-a-Lago forum hosted by World Liberty Financial on Wednesday failed to ignite bullish momentum, despite attendance from CFTC Chairman Michael Selig and executives from firms such as Goldman Sachs.
Technically, bitcoin remains in a broader downtrend after reaching a record high near $126,600 in early October. The chart continues to reflect a pattern of lower highs and lower lows, interrupted by choppy consolidation phases.
Derivatives landscape
Open interest has stabilized at $15.38 billion, marking a shift from forced deleveraging to a more balanced footing.
Retail sentiment has shown mild improvement, with funding rates turning flat to slightly positive — Binance funding has returned to around 4%. Institutional positioning, however, remains restrained, as the three-month annualized basis holds near 3%.
In options markets, call and put volumes are evenly split. The one-week 25-delta skew has climbed to 12%, while the implied volatility term structure remains in short-term backwardation. Elevated front-end implied volatility suggests traders are still paying a premium for near-term protection, even as longer-dated tenors hover near 49%.
According to CoinGlass, 24-hour liquidations totaled $218 million, with longs accounting for 77% of the wipeout. Bitcoin led with $75 million in liquidations, followed by ether at $53 million and other tokens at $22 million. Binance’s liquidation heatmap points to $67,400 as a key level to watch if prices attempt to move higher.
Altcoin snapshot
Altcoins are bearing the brunt of thin liquidity conditions.
WLFI fell more than 10% in a classic “sell-the-news” reaction following Wednesday’s event. Axie Infinity’s AXS token is revisiting its Feb. 6 lows after dropping 5.9% since midnight UTC. Lending protocol Morpho’s MORPHO token has surrendered all of Wednesday’s gains, trading around $1.39 after a 4.2% overnight decline.
Market breadth remains weak: 97 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies — excluding stablecoins and tokenized gold — are in negative territory over the past 24 hours.
Sentiment indicators reinforce the cautious mood. The crypto fear and greed index sits at 11 out of 100, up modestly from February’s low of 6, but still firmly entrenched in “extreme fear” territory.
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