Bitcoin opened the week with sharp swings, briefly climbing above $82,400 before slipping back under $81,000 as traders repositioned around the CME futures open and geopolitical tensions weighed on risk appetite.
The move began late Sunday, with BTC rising from roughly $80,670 at 23:00 UTC to a peak near $82,400 within an hour. The rally quickly lost steam, with prices pulling back and stabilizing just below the $81,000 mark.
The volatility coincided with the weekly reopening of CME bitcoin futures and U.S. equity futures—an event that ხშირად triggers heavy positioning flows and the formation of “CME gaps,” where prices reopen at levels different from their Friday close.
Across the broader market, performance was mixed to weaker. The CoinDesk 100 index dropped about 1.5%, while the more bitcoin-weighted CoinDesk 5 declined 0.6%.
Macro developments added another layer of pressure. U.S. President Donald Trump called Iran’s response to a peace proposal “totally unacceptable,” pushing oil prices and the dollar higher while weighing on risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
In derivatives markets, activity remained relatively muted. Total crypto futures open interest has held just above $130 billion for four consecutive days, suggesting a lack of fresh leverage and limited directional conviction.
Liquidations, however, have been notable, with more than $400 million in leveraged positions wiped out across centralized exchanges. Short positions made up the majority of those liquidations.
Beneath the surface, altcoins showed pockets of strength. SUI stood out, with open interest jumping 29%, aligning with its strong price performance and signaling increased demand for bullish exposure, supported by positive funding rates and rising volume metrics.
DOGE and HBAR also recorded gains in open interest, while BTC and ETH positioning remained largely flat. In contrast, ZEC saw open interest decline by around 6%, indicating capital flowing out of the privacy-focused token.
Despite key U.S. inflation data—including CPI and PPI—due later this week, volatility expectations remain subdued. Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility continues to hover near three-month lows, reflecting a relatively calm options market.
On Deribit, call options between $81,000 and $86,000 dominate trading activity, pointing to a bullish bias. At the same time, traders have been deploying long call condor strategies, suggesting expectations for limited price movement and a low-volatility environment.
Elsewhere, Venice’s VVV token has surged over the past month, more than doubling as a result of supply cuts, token burns, and increasing demand tied to AI-related use cases.
The rally initially gained traction after Venice boosted its subscription-linked burn rates in late April, with higher-tier plans triggering larger token burns. This was followed by a reduction in annual emissions from 6 million to 5 million tokens on May 1, with further cuts planned.
Momentum strengthened further after StrikeRobot announced plans to integrate Venice as a primary inference API backend for its robotics platforms, adding a new demand driver.
At the same time, platform revenue has been improving. Co-founder Jesse Proudman noted that subscription and credit purchases recently reached a record high, exceeding the previous peak by 10%.
Despite the strong rebound, VVV remains below its January 2025 high of $22.5, after initially dropping as much as 50% following its launch amid concerns over insider-related activity tied to early buyers.
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