Hormuz Tensions Weigh on Bitcoin as XRP Approaches a Sub-$1 Fall

Crypto markets were mostly steady Tuesday as optimism over a possible agreement involving the Strait of Hormuz faded. President Donald Trump’s demand for 50 years of compensation from Iran reduced hopes for a quick resolution and pushed Brent crude back toward $89 a barrel.

Brent climbed to $89.08, leaving it more than 12% above last week’s low. The renewed oil strength added to inflation concerns ahead of Wednesday’s U.S. consumer price index report.

Bitcoin was 0.26% higher from midnight UTC but remained down 1.68% over the previous 24 hours. Ether fell 2.4%, while U.S. stock futures were little changed as investors waited for the CPI data, which could influence expectations for the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate path.

Bitcoin also remained under pressure following Strategy’s sale of 1,690 BTC on Monday. It was the company’s fourth straight weekly reduction, and Strategy has not added bitcoin to its holdings since June.

Derivatives Activity

Crypto futures volume jumped 51% over 24 hours to $143.15 billion, while total open interest held near $115.6 billion. The divergence suggests a surge in trading activity without a major increase in overall market exposure.

The taker long-short ratio returned to a balanced reading, with long and short market orders each accounting for roughly half of activity. A day earlier, the ratio had favored buyers.

XRP recorded the largest increase in open interest. Active futures contracts rose 14% to 2.72 billion XRP, the highest level since October. The rise comes as the token remains close to the $1 threshold, with a break below it potentially marking its first move under that level since 2024.

XRP’s negative 24-hour cumulative volume delta indicates that aggressive sellers are currently more active than buyers. Market-order selling has outpaced aggressive buying, although funding rates remain slightly positive.

LINK, ETH and HBAR were among the other cryptocurrencies with higher open interest, while CC, ZEC and AVAX recorded the largest declines.

Bearish market-order pressure remained widespread. Most major tokens, including bitcoin, posted negative 24-hour CVD readings, while LINK and TRX were among the exceptions.

Funding rates varied sharply between assets. Monero recorded an annualized rate of roughly 39%, suggesting strong bullish positioning, whereas CC’s rate was near -14%, reflecting a pronounced bearish bias.

Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, increased nearly 5% to 38.64%, moving above its long-standing floor around 36%. The jump came after BTC fell back below $64,000.

Options positioning also became less bullish. One-week call skew for BTC and ETH on Deribit weakened and could turn negative. A hotter-than-expected CPI reading could reinforce expectations for higher rates for longer, potentially increasing pressure on risk assets.

Despite that shift, one-week implied volatility for bitcoin and ether remained relatively compressed, indicating that traders were not yet pricing in a major volatility event around the CPI release.

Upside bets continued to attract volume, with the BTC $70,000 call and ETH $2,000 call expiring Sept. 25 among the most actively traded contracts.

Token Movers

CRV led the major gainers, rising 9.49% over 24 hours and extending its weekly advance to 27.29%. The Curve DAO token has remained one of the stronger performers in DeFi despite the broader market weakness.

LIT rose 6.40% over 24 hours to about $2.43 and gained 2.26% since midnight. The token is now nearly 20% higher over the week as it rebounds from its July decline.

LINK climbed 2.59% since midnight and is up 4.40% over seven days, supported by renewed interest in oracle infrastructure and the growing real-world asset tokenization sector.

ZEC fell 1.97% since midnight to roughly $486, giving back some of its recent gains after several weeks of outperformance. Monero also slipped 0.72% as weakness spread across privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.

CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season indicator improved to 41 out of 100 from 37 on Monday. The increase suggests some investors are beginning to buy cryptocurrencies that have recently suffered heavier declines.