Altcoins Take the Lead as Bitcoin Hovers Around $85K

Bitcoin remains stuck in a narrow trading range, allowing smaller altcoins to take the lead as traders look for stronger moves elsewhere in the crypto market.

BTW, the native token of Bitway, jumped 25% over the past 24 hours and has gained 170% in the last 30 days. Bitway is a bitcoin-compatible layer-1 blockchain that uses proof-of-stake consensus and offers decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure.

The token has also attracted attention across social media following the conclusion of Binance Wallet’s “Booster Season 5” campaign on Oct. 2. The campaign provided rewards for deposits and may have helped increase retail engagement with BTW.

The broader altcoin market has also shown signs of strength. Filecoin’s FIL gained 12% over 24 hours, while LayerZero’s ZRO climbed 10%. Both tokens have advanced at least 50% over the past four weeks. Midnight’s NIGHT rose another 8% during the same period.

Meanwhile, SKY, VVV and DASH were the three weakest performers among the 100 largest tokens by market capitalization.

BTC Still Has No Clear Breakout

Bitcoin continues to trade within its established range. BTC was around $85,900 at the time of writing after slipping toward $85,000 earlier in the session.

The quoted market data showed bitcoin at $86,199.35 and ether at $2,712.86.

Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at TheFxPro, warned that a loss of key support could send bitcoin sharply lower.

“A break below $84K would signal a victory for the bears, and a break below the recent local lows at $83K would confirm this with even greater certainty. In this scenario, the leading cryptocurrency could fall to $80K fairly quickly,” he said.

Leverage Is Losing Some Heat

Bitcoin’s derivatives market has remained relatively stable. Open interest was approximately $21.9 billion, only slightly below the previous $22.0 billion.

Funding rates have also moved lower, currently sitting broadly between 0% and 5% annualized across venues. That compares with the previous 4% to 10% range.

The three-month annualized basis held within the 5% to 6% range.

The figures indicate that traders have stabilized their positioning following Friday’s buildup. Leveraged longs are still present, although funding pressure has eased.

Options activity remains tilted toward bullish calls. The 24-hour put/call volume ratio stood at 62/38 in favor of calls. The one-week 25-delta skew remained negative at approximately -2%.

The at-the-money term structure stayed in contango, with front-end implied volatility around 24% to 25% and rising to roughly 39% by late 2027.

CoinGlass recorded $163 million in liquidations over the previous 24 hours. Long positions represented 63% of the total, compared with 27% for shorts.

BTC accounted for $51 million in liquidations, followed by other cryptocurrencies at $21 million and ETH at $19 million. The Binance liquidation heatmap showed $87,150 as a key level to monitor if bitcoin rallies.

Privacy Tokens Defy Broader Weakness

Privacy-focused assets were among the strongest performers. Monero (XMR) rose 1.9% to $557, while Zcash (ZEC) gained 2.5% and moved back above $1,350.

The gains came as demand for anonymous layer-1 assets remained firm despite changes in macroeconomic sentiment.

NEAR Protocol also delivered a notable advance, rising 4.5% over 24 hours to $5.25. Buying interest returned after the sharp market-wide pullback experienced last week.

Rain Protocol’s RAIN token headed lower, falling 5.6% as selling pressure returned. Recent supply emissions and broader profit-taking among speculative low-cap altcoins contributed to the decline.

Large DeFi tokens showed relatively limited movement. Uniswap (UNI) fell 1.4% to $8.89, while Chainlink (LINK) eased 1.2% to $14.

Sui (SUI) also declined, dropping 3.2% over 24 hours to around $1.20 as the layer-1 token continued to digest recent volatility.

The latest market action shows a divergence between bitcoin and smaller cryptocurrencies. While BTC remains range-bound around $85,000, selected altcoins are attracting stronger buying interest and posting much larger short-term gains.