Bitcoin Stays Above $80K as Injective Surges on Staked ETF Listing

Bitcoin declined 0.2% to approximately $80,250 since midnight UTC but continued trading above the $80,000 threshold following Wednesday’s rally. The recovery also coincided with U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs ending a three-day period of net outflows.

Bitcoin slipped 0.2% to around $80,250 after climbing from approximately $78,000 on Wednesday. Ether lost 0.4%, while the CoinDesk 80 Index advanced 0.9%.

Wednesday’s market rebound followed an approximately 8% drop in oil prices and gains across U.S. equity markets after the midterm elections. Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin has gained 2.5%, while Ether has advanced 4%. Brent crude was trading near $95 per barrel, recovering slightly after Wednesday’s sharp decline.

According to Farside Investors, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $74.6 million in net inflows on Wednesday, bringing their three-day outflow streak to an end.

U.S. stock futures showed mixed movements early Thursday. S&P 500 futures declined 0.1%, while Nasdaq-100 futures dropped 0.8%. Investors were also preparing for the latest jobless claims figures on Thursday and Friday’s employment report.

Crypto Derivatives Show Signs of a Short Squeeze

Short liquidations increase: Trading activity across cryptocurrency futures markets climbed 15% over 24 hours to $244 billion, while aggregate open interest increased just 1% to $139.9 billion. This suggests that much of the activity involved traders opening and closing existing positions rather than significant fresh capital entering the market.

Liquidations surged 53% to $715 million, with short positions accounting for approximately 65% of the total. This indicates that bearish traders were forced to close their positions as prices moved higher.

Meanwhile, the taker buy-sell volume ratio, which measures aggressive market orders, shifted slightly toward sellers at 50.6%, reversing Wednesday’s modest buying bias.

Bitcoin rally driven by short covering: Bitcoin’s open interest increased only 0.3% despite a 2.6% price advance. Around 93% of the $267 million in Bitcoin liquidations came from short positions.

The combination suggests that forced closures of bearish bets played a larger role in Bitcoin’s recovery than the creation of new leveraged long positions. However, funding rates remain positive and have increased from the previous day, indicating that long traders are still paying short sellers to maintain their positions.

NEAR reverses buying momentum as Zcash cools: NEAR Protocol recorded the strongest market-order buying activity on Wednesday but shifted to the weakest position on Thursday. Its open interest declined 2.7% alongside a 1.1% price drop, indicating that capital was leaving the market. Funding rates remained positive, meaning long traders continued paying shorts.

Zcash also showed signs of cooling momentum. Its open interest increased 3.5% as its price gained 3.6%, but the 25% jump in fresh capital recorded the previous day did not continue. Trading volume also declined 13%.

Market buying and selling remain divided: Open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD), which tracks aggressive buying and selling activity, presented mixed signals across digital assets. Sui’s SUI token ranked among the strongest in market-order buying, while TRX, GRAM and BNB recorded some of the weakest readings.

Funding rates indicate a bullish bias: Funding rates remained positive across most cryptocurrencies, suggesting that long traders were generally paying short traders to maintain leveraged positions. Monero’s XMR continued to record the highest positive funding rate, although it declined from Wednesday. GRAM and TRX had the most negative readings, indicating that short sellers were paying long traders.

Bitcoin options show declining downside protection: Bitcoin’s one-week options skew, which measures the additional premium investors pay for put options relative to calls, dropped to approximately 2% from 11% a day earlier.

The sharp decline indicates that demand for short-term downside protection has largely faded. Meanwhile, one-week implied volatility, which reflects the price movements expected by options traders, eased to around 33%.

Call options dominate Bitcoin trading: Five of Bitcoin’s six most actively traded options contracts were call options, with strike prices ranging from $78,000 to $85,000. Only one put contract appeared among the leading positions.

This marked a shift from Wednesday, when put options with strike prices of $75,000 and $68,000 also featured prominently. Ether options showed the opposite trend, with four of the six most active contracts being puts with strike prices below the current market price.

Injective Rallies Following Staked ETF Listing Approval

Injective (INJ) led the CoinDesk 100 Index, rising approximately 6% since midnight UTC after Nasdaq approved the listing of Canary Capital’s proposed staked INJ exchange-traded fund. The product is expected to trade under the ticker INJC, according to an SEC filing. INJ gained approximately 10% over the previous 24 hours.

Venice Token (VVV), which led market gains on Wednesday, reversed direction and lost 11% over the same 24-hour period.

Official Trump (TRUMP) dropped approximately 14%, making it the weakest performer among the top 100 cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap. World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token also declined around 4%. Both tokens came under pressure following Democratic victories in the midterm elections.

Meanwhile, the CoinMarketCap Fear and Greed Index climbed to 42 from 37, moving back into neutral territory. The Altcoin Season Index stood at 49, indicating that the market had yet to establish a clear altcoin-led rally.

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