Bitcoin and ether (ETH) consolidated during Asian and European hours after rebounding on Tuesday following a weaker-than-expected US inflation reading.
Bitcoin, although up more than 3% over 24 hours, has fallen 0.6% since midnight UTC as tensions between Iran and the United States over oil tanker movements in the Strait of Hormuz intensified. The largest cryptocurrency has already reached a three-week high of $65,200.
Ether followed a similar trajectory, remaining up 5% over 24 hours even after falling 0.8% since midnight. It touched $1,895 on Tuesday, the highest level since June 3.
US stocks also gained over the period, with Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures posting gains of 0.53% and 0.22%, respectively.
The altcoin market has also shown pockets of strength; PUMP is up 8.5% since midnight after a team and investor release was mopped up by investors, suggesting robust demand.
Positioning of derivative products
- The positioning of BTC derivatives remains largely unchanged. Open interest reached $17.3 billion, although not significant, the three-month annualized basis held steady at 3.8% and funding rates remained broadly in the 0% to 8% annualized range across multiple locations. In essence, the market continues to consolidate
- Options positioning became more bullish as the 24-hour call/put ratio rose to 66/34 from yesterday’s weaker reading of 58/42 and the one-week delta skew remained stable at around 15%. The ATM maturity structure remains in contango, with the front end around 32-33% and the long end at around 42.5% through mid-2027, indicating a calm, unstressed volatility environment with a renewed trend toward upside positioning.
- Data from Coinglass shows $357 million in liquidations over 24 hours, with a 19-81 split between long and short positions. ETH ($132 million) and BTC ($118 million) were the leaders in terms of notional liquidations.
- Binance’s liquidation heatmap shows $63,500 as the base liquidation level to watch for in the event of a price decline.
Symbolic discussion
- CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” indicator fell to 46/100 on Wednesday, likely due to the strength shown by the largest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ether.
- The indicator was also penalized by which has lost around 1% since midnight UTC despite the dynamism of the entire market.
- Hyperliquid (HYPE) has demonstrated its strength, adding 4% since midnight as it looks to extend May’s rally, which was characterized by a series of higher highs and higher lows. The next target would be an all-time high above $78.00.
- HYPE’s rival token LIT stagnated after a strong month, rising just 0.5% as it began to experience profit-taking and supply distribution as it neared its all-time high of $2.76.
- There was also a strong gain for zcash (ZEC), which surged more than 10% in the last 24 hours before consolidating around $557.
