Crypto market continues to trade in a tight range on Wednesday, with bitcoin up 0.9% to around $68,000 since midnight UTC.
The largest cryptocurrency has been trading between $65,100 and $72,000 since February 6, as market volatility reduced following a February 5 selloff that took BTC to its lowest level since October 2024.
The altcoin market is running its own race. Monero (XMR) and posted gains of 3% and 1.7% respectively since midnight, while zcash (ZEC) and hyperliquid (HYPE) lost 3.5% and 1.1% over the same period.
The subdued performance in the crypto market comes as U.S. stocks begin to dig out of trouble – S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 index futures are up 0.57% and 0.66% since midnight UTC as investors await clues on monetary policy when the Fed releases its meeting minutes later on Wednesday.
Derivative products
- Market dynamics have trended toward stabilization as open interest remains at $15.5 billion, marking a transition from a debt cleanup to a stable floor.
- While retail confidence has cooled with funding rates becoming stable to slightly negative (Binance at -0.11%), institutional conviction remains anchored, the three-month annualized base persists at 3%.
- The BTC options market has reached a state of relative equilibrium, with 24-hour volume split 49/51 between calls and puts.
- While the 1-week delta skew of 25 has further eased to 11%, the maturity structure of implied volatility (IV) remains in short-term backwardation, as evidenced by the initial sharp spike in the IV curve before stabilizing at near 49% for longer maturities.
- Coinglass data shows $193 million in liquidations over 24 hours, with a 62-38 split between long and short positions. BTC ($72 million), ETH ($52 million) and others ($12 million) were the leaders in terms of notional liquidations.
- Binance’s liquidation heatmap shows $68,800 as the base liquidation level to watch for in the event of a price rally.
Symbolic discussion
- The “altcoin season” indicator rose to 34/100, from a low of 22/100 on February 8, indicating relative strength in the altcoin market despite relatively low volatility levels.
- The best performing asset on Wednesday was the DeFi token backed by the Trump family, up 8.8% since midnight and 18.52% in the last 24 hours.
- Investors are betting on WLFI ahead of the projects’ crypto forum at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday, which will be attended by executives from Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq and Franklin Templeton, among others.
- It should be noted that rallies preceding actual events or announcements often result in a “selling the news” scenario, as those who “buy the rumor” rush for profits.
- Lending platform Morpho’s native MORPHO token has also been on an uptrend lately, rising 36% in the past week and 7% in the past 24 hours as traders attempt to capitalize on an otherwise immobile market.
