Crypto Markets Today: Market Rallies, Altcoins Lead Gains; Zcash Hits 16-Month High

The crypto market experienced a boost on Wednesday with majors bitcoin BTC$92,777.62 and ether ETH$3,168.36 rising 2.9% and 3.1% respectively.

But the real story was in the altcoin market as several tokens rose by double-digits as investors speculate on another phase of "atlcoin season."

ZEC hit its highest point since May 2022 while a number of DeFi tokens also experienced moves to the upside.

The market uptick comes alongside a backdrop of the U.S. government shutdown, which has spurred gold prices to record highs and caused a sell-off in the dollar.

Derivatives Positioning

by Jacob Joseph

• The BTC futures market continues to show a strengthening bullish bias. The overall futures open interest remains high at around $31.69 billion, reflecting sustained trader engagement, with Binance still leading the pack at $13.19 billion. Concurrently, the 3-month annualized basis is holding firm between 6% and 7%, indicating that the yield from the basis trade remains robust. This consistent metric across both open interest and basis suggests that traders are not only increasing their exposure but are doing so with conviction, reinforcing the positive sentiment observed in the market.
• The BTC options market continues to show a divergence between its key metrics, presenting a complex picture of market sentiment. While the 25 Delta Skew for short-term options remains low, suggesting that traders are still willing to pay a premium for puts to hedge against downside risk, the 24-hour Put/Call Volume points to a surge in bullish speculation. The latest data shows that calls now make up 63.54% of the total volume, a strong reversal from a put-dominated market. This conflicting data indicates a highly polarized environment where some traders are hedging against potential price drops, while a larger number are actively betting on a short-term rally.
• Funding rates have not only remained positive on major exchanges like Binance and OKX, but have picked up across the board, including on the historically volatile Hyperliquid. Deribit, in particular, is seeing a significant premium, with its annualized funding rate jumping to 17%. This indicates a strong and sustained demand for leveraged long positions, as traders are consistently willing to pay a high premium to hold their bullish bets. The widespread positive funding across all major platforms signals a collective market conviction in a continued upward trend for BTC.
• Coinglass data shows $644 million in 24 hour liquidations, with a 38-62 split between longs and shorts. BTC ($166 million), ETH ($164 million) and Others ($69 million) were the leaders in terms of notional liquidations. Binance liquidation heatmap indicates $116,650 as a core liquidation level to monitor, in case of a price rise.

Token Talk

By Oliver Knight

• Privacy token zcash ZEC$493.70 is leading the pack on Wednesday, rising to its highest point since May 2022 following a break out against its bitcoin and dollar trading pairs.
• ZEC touched $97.25 before retreating back to around $92.00 - a 41% rise for the day on the back of a 36% rise in daily trading volume to $300 million.
• The surge comes alongside a boost across the wider altcoin market, with DeFi tokens ENA$0.2439, curve (CRV) and RAY$1.1443 all increasing by more than 8%.
• A number of catalysts triggered the crypto recovery; notably the U.S. government shutdown that brought the dollar lower and gold to fresh record highs at $3,887.
• Altcoins have outperformed bitcoin so far on Wednesday, although it's worth noting that the average crypto relative strength index (RSI) is approaching overbought territory, suggesting that a period of consolidation is on the cards as the market begins to cool.
• One market outlier was aster, the native token of its namesake's BNB Chain-based perpetual exchange. ASTER slumped by 6.8% on Wednesday to compound a 25% decline over the past week as hype in the HyperLiquid rival begins to fade.