Bitcoin Consolidates Following 23% Jump as ETF Buying Continues

Bitcoin eased toward $79,000 on Wednesday as investors took profits after a powerful 23% gain over seven days, while steady spot ETF inflows continued to signal resilient demand.

BTC was down about 1.2% over the previous 24 hours, trading near $79,000. The CoinDesk 20 Index also weakened by roughly 2.1%.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted around $314 million on Tuesday, extending their inflow streak to seven consecutive sessions. August’s cumulative inflows have now surpassed $3 billion, according to SoSoValue data.

The rally has also caused market sentiment to shift rapidly. Alternative.me’s Crypto Fear & Greed Index climbed to 74 from 27 less than two weeks earlier before pulling back, reflecting the sharp increase in risk appetite.

Pedro Fontes, a research analyst at Mercado Bitcoin, highlighted $82,000 and $85,000 as the next major resistance points. He said Bitcoin could naturally consolidate after its steep climb.

Gold traded around $4,630 per ounce after reaching a three-month peak. Asian equities advanced, while U.S. stock futures were largely unchanged ahead of inflation data and Nvidia’s earnings. Oil prices extended their decline for a third straight session.

Bitcoin Derivatives Paint a Mixed Picture

Taker activity shifts bearish: The taker long-short volume ratio moved below neutral ahead of key economic releases. Short positions made up 51.64% of 24-hour taker volume, pointing to slightly stronger selling activity.

Falling BTC futures OI offers support: Bitcoin dropped toward $78,500 while futures open interest declined below 700,000 BTC. Falling spot prices alongside lower OI typically indicates traders are unwinding positions rather than aggressively adding new shorts. Ether and XRP derivatives followed a similar pattern.

SOL OI continues climbing: Solana futures open interest increased for a third consecutive day, reaching 65.53 million tokens. However, the figure is only a one-week high.

SUI futures OI hits a record: SUI futures open interest reached approximately 838 million tokens, the highest level on record. With the token’s spot price down more than 5% over 24 hours, the rise in OI could reflect increased short exposure. Negative OI-adjusted CVD also points to bearish positioning.

Negative CVD spreads across the market: Many of the largest cryptocurrencies continue to post negative CVD, suggesting traders are increasingly selling through market orders instead of placing passive limit orders.

Volatility expectations decline: Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility gauge, BVIV, continued to fall from its recent peak, suggesting traders expect a calmer period with BTC consolidating around $80,000. Ether’s EVIV has also moved lower.

Call options attract buyers: Deribit data show growing demand for Bitcoin calls with strikes between $82,000 and $100,000. These instruments allow traders to gain upside exposure without holding BTC directly. Ether options are showing similar demand.

Token Market Movers

PYTH jumped 11% over 24 hours ahead of the Pyth Core infrastructure upgrade. The update is expected to improve price-feed frequency, expand available feeds and reduce latency.

ZRO also recorded double-digit gains after LayerZero unveiled ATLAS, a trading and settlement engine that will direct 75% of remaining revenue toward buying and burning ZRO.

Major assets such as Bitcoin, Ether and Solana slipped as traders realized gains following their recent rallies.

Zcash dropped 7.3% in 24 hours after Grayscale’s spot ZEC ETF began trading. The decline came after ZEC had gained about 56% during the previous seven days.

INJ, ENA and VIRTUAL also declined, falling 6.8%, 6.5% and 5.2%, respectively.