Decred (DCR), a token built for autonomy and decentralized governance, extended its gains even as the broader market was led by Bitcoin struggle.
The token is up 16% in the past 24 hours and is now trading at $34.58, the highest since November, according to CoinDesk data. It is the best performing token in the top 100 over the past four weeks, having gained more than 80% following a change to its treasury rules on February 8.
Bitcoin, for its part, is facing renewed selling pressure, barely trading around $67,000, a weak follow-up after rebounding to $70,000 on Wednesday. The cryptocurrency is down 2% over 24 hours, with Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), and the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) seeing similar losses.
Market participants remain cautious and continue to look for put options, or downside protection, on Bitcoin. Deribit said ETF holders and corporate treasuries purchase puts with a strike price of $60,000 expiring in six to 12 months.
Analysts said institutional flows are improving but not yet decisive, and traders should avoid taking big risks.
“Long-term investors might consider staggered accumulation (SIP-like allocation) near support zones rather than deploying lump sums at resistance,” Vikram Subburaj, CEO of crypto exchange Giottus.com, said in an email to CoinDesk.
Positioning of derivative products
- Cumulative open interest (OI) in crypto futures has fallen back to its recent multi-month low of around $93.5 billion. The decline shows how quickly the optimism sparked by Wednesday’s bitcoin price rebound has faded.
- Major tokens including bitcoin and ether saw capital outflows from futures contracts as notional OIs declined more than their spot prices.
- The market-wide long/short ratio continues to show a dominance of short positions or bearish bets.
- OI in Tether Gold (XAUT) fell another 11%, extending the decline from earlier this week. Gold-linked assets seem to have fallen out of favor in recent times.
- Most large-cap tokens, including BTC and ETH, are once again experiencing negative perpetual funding rates. This means that bearish plays are once again dominating the market.
- Participation in CME Bitcoin futures is declining, as shown by open interest hitting record lows this year.
- On Deribit, one-month bitcoin still places trades at a 7% premium to calls, a sign of lingering concerns about further declines in spot prices. The same goes for ether.
- Bitcoin put spreads, a bearish strategy, accounted for 75% of the total 24-hour block flow. In the case of ETH, traders looked for put spreads and straddles (volatility strategies).
Symbolic discussion
The DFINITY Foundation has proposed burning 20% of cloud engine revenue, introducing a deflationary element directly linked to network usage for Internet Computers (ICP).
The remaining 80% of revenue would be channeled to node operators, replacing fixed emissions with performance-based incentives. The idea is to make ICP’s token supply more responsive to actual demand.
The price of ICP increased by approximately 6% in the last 24 hours, from approximately $2.41 to $2.56. This is down from the high of $2.7 seen during the period. The price appears to be influenced not only by the foundation’s proposal, but also by Nvidia’s skyrocketing profits.
These profits have boosted sentiment surrounding AI-related assets, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying that AI is only getting better.
ICP, often marketed as a decentralized alternative to traditional cloud AI infrastructure, was part of several AI-related tokens, including Render (RENDER) and Bittensor (TAO), which benefited from renewed investor interest in the sector.
