Bitcoin slipped to around $76,500 after falling more than 1% since midnight UTC and about 3% over the past week as intensified U.S. strikes on Iranian targets pressured broader risk assets.
Brent crude climbed above $93 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate moved close to $90 as tensions in the region escalated. The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) was up 0.13% since midnight.
The rise in energy prices also pushed the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield toward 4.8% as markets assessed the potential inflation impact of more expensive oil. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.31%, while S&P 500 futures declined 0.11%.
Derivatives Positioning
Market sentiment turns bearish: The 24-hour long-short taker volume ratio moved into bearish territory, with short trades representing 51.5% of total flow, according to CoinGlass. The shift followed several sessions of neutral readings. Trading volume increased 19% to $203 billion over 24 hours, while open interest remained near $136 billion for a second consecutive day.
Bitcoin leverage remains limited: Despite BTC’s decline, futures data shows little evidence that traders are aggressively adding leveraged short positions. Bitcoin futures open interest was unchanged over 24 hours at approximately 700,000 BTC. Total positioning remains relatively light compared with this year’s peak of 801,000 BTC.
Ether attracts more shorts: Ether is showing a different pattern. Its price declined while open interest edged higher, a combination often associated with fresh short positions entering the market. ETH open interest reached 13.72 million tokens, the highest since Aug. 18, but remained below May’s record of 15.68 million.
Order flow favors bears: Bitcoin and ether’s 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) also indicates that sellers are taking the lead. Negative CVD readings suggest shorts are being executed at market prices rather than through passive limit orders. The same pattern is visible across major tokens, with Uniswap’s UNI the main exception.
UNI continues to rally without clear overheating: UNI gained another 4% over 24 hours to reach a seven-month high of $6.37. Futures open interest also climbed to a record 89.44 million tokens, supporting the strength seen in the spot market. The rally does not yet appear excessively crowded, with annualized funding rates below 10%. That points to a bullish long bias without the extreme positioning that can often precede a long squeeze.
TRX remains heavily shorted: Tron continues to show crowded bearish positioning for a second consecutive day, with funding rates around minus 85%.
Volatility expectations ease: The 30-day implied volatility measures for BTC and ETH have given back their mid-August increases, suggesting traders are anticipating relatively calmer conditions.
Options positioning becomes more defensive: On Deribit, the $70,000 bitcoin put expiring Sept. 25 was the most-traded BTC options contract over the past 24 hours. However, four of the other five highest-volume contracts were calls, indicating continued bullish positioning in much of the market. For ether, the $2,200 put expiring Sept. 11 led trading volume, with most of the remaining top five contracts also being puts. Puts can be used either as protection against a decline or as a way to profit if the underlying asset falls.
Token Moves
Ether.fi’s ETHFI was among the strongest altcoins, gaining 4.63% since midnight to roughly 58.9 cents as much of the broader market moved lower.
Monero (XMR) added 2.27% to trade near $516, extending its advance from about $464 a week earlier. The privacy-focused token has been one of the market’s steadier performers over the past two weeks, showing limited correlation with the broader moves in crypto.
Zcash (ZEC), another privacy coin, also posted a gain, rising 1% to $824.63. It is now up 71.23% over the past 30 days.
Arbitrum’s ARB extended Tuesday’s rally, gaining another 9.33% over 24 hours to 11.68 cents. The move came as revenue generated by Robinhood Chain continued to be directed to the Arbitrum DAO treasury.
DASH recorded the largest decline, falling 4.72% since midnight to $41.82. PUMP dropped 3.54% to 0.4223 cents, while NEAR declined 2.29% to $1.8429. Among major cryptocurrencies, XRP was one of the weaker performers, dropping 1.72% to $1.3281 and extending its seven-day loss to 6.22%.
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