Crypto Markets Today: Privacy Tokens Shine, Majors Stall as Market Consolidates

The crypto market continued to consolidate on Wednesday with crypto majors bitcoin BTC$87,654.78 and ether ETH$2,970.16 losing less than 1% while privacy tokens such as decred DCR$15.32, up 22%, DASH and XMR extended their market outperformance.

The overall crypto market cap is down by 0.6% in the past 24 hours to $3.51 trillion, although it remains higher than on Nov. 7 when it ticked down to as low as $3.32 trillion.

A recent rise in volatility suggests that a void in market liquidity remains after last month's leverage-induced blowout. That means a news catalyst could cause significant swings in price action as the market remains coiled.

Eyeballs will be focused on the U.S., with the government shutdown apparently coming into its final stages. Resumption of the government could accelerate crypto policy changes and potentially dictate price action.

Derivatives positioning

By Omkar Godbole

• Volmex's BVIV index, which measures the 30-day implied volatility in bitcoin, remains elevated in the recent range around 50%. Traders eye increased price turbulence in the near term due to thin liquidity, macro concerns and put-option buyers.
• Futures activity has been mixed with tokens like HYPE, BCH and SOL seeing 1%-2% growth in open interest (OI) in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, OI in ETH, XRP and BNB has declined while BTC has held mostly flat.
• Annualized funding rates for BTC and ETH remain well below the 2025 average, indicating subdued demand for leverage and investor risk appetite.
• On the CME, annualized three-month basis in SOL futures has dropped to 7%, the lowest since July, matching premiums in BTC and ETH futures.
• On Deribit, options tied to BTC and ETH continue to show near-term bearish outlook.
• Block flows featured a trader selling a BTC put spread in the December expiry, while call options tied to ether, ranging from $4,000 to $7,000 were lifted.

Token talk

By Oliver Knight

• The altcoin market is showing signs of indecision on Wednesday after a volatile period saw prices whipsaw from crucial levels of support on Friday to relative safety on Monday.
• The privacy coin revival continues to be the main narrative. Decred DCR$15.32 posted a 22% gain while dash DASH$37.76 and monero XMR$446.75 also up solidly over the past 24 hours.
• There was also a notable 20% gain for canton (CC), the native token of the Canton Network blockchain, which is designed for institutions and backed by major banks.
• However, several of the largest crypto tokens are in the red over the past 24 hours. Ether ETH$2,970.16, XRP$1.8775 and bnb BNB$847.16 are all down 1%-2%. Solana SOL$123.57 exhibited more weakness with a 3.6% move to the downside.
• CoinMarketCap's average relative strength index (RSI) is at 51.26/100, demonstrating that the market is neither oversold or overbought and that a catalyst is needed to drive price action.
• The fear and greed index, which analyzes market sentiment, is sliding back into fearful territory at 26/100. It has been below 30 just a handful of times over the past year, leading to a series of significant bounces in March.

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