Altcoins Gain Ground on Bitcoin as Celestia Rallies 16% and Warsh Stays Silent on Rates

Altcoins led the cryptocurrency market’s recovery as Celestia (TIA) surged 16%, Injective (INJ) climbed 7.7% and LayerZero (ZRO) gained 7.3%. Bitcoin remained relatively stable around $82,100 as Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh avoided offering guidance on the central bank’s next interest-rate decision.

Bitcoin traded near $82,100 on Friday, showing little change since midnight UTC after rebounding from a brief drop to approximately $81,600 around 03:30 UTC. The recovery kept BTC above $80,000 following Thursday’s short-lived break below the level, marking the first such move in roughly a month.

Ether rose 0.5% to around $2,450, while the CoinDesk 80 Index (CD80) gained 0.46%. The more Bitcoin-focused CoinDesk 5 Index (CD5) remained largely unchanged as altcoins posted stronger overall performance.

Celestia led the advance among major tokens, followed by Injective and LayerZero. Approximately four-fifths of the assets in the CoinDesk 100 Index (CD100) traded higher, lifting CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index to 60 from 50 a day earlier.

Asian equities also bounced back after Thursday’s sell-off. South Korea’s Kospi rose 2.05% at the close, while Japan’s Nikkei advanced 1.39%. S&P 500 futures were little changed after the U.S. benchmark ended a three-session losing streak.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh provided no clear indication of the central bank’s intentions for its upcoming meeting while speaking at the IMF and World Bank gatherings in Bangkok. CME FedWatch data showed the probability of an October rate hike falling to approximately 15%, compared with around 30% previously. U.S. Treasury yields remained broadly stable.

Derivatives Market Update

Futures activity slows as liquidations decline. Cryptocurrency futures trading volume fell 20% over 24 hours to approximately $200 billion, while open interest climbed 2% to $142.21 billion. Liquidations dropped to $311 million from nearly $1 billion the previous day. The decline in forced closures suggests selling pressure has eased, while rising open interest indicates traders are continuing to establish positions.

Market selling pressure becomes more balanced. The 24-hour taker long/short volume ratio moved toward neutral after short-side transactions represented 52% of activity a day earlier. The shift suggests aggressive selling has moderated.

Bitcoin, Ether and Solana recover without significant new long exposure. Bitcoin’s dollar-denominated futures open interest increased just 0.3% while its spot price rose 1%, suggesting the number of outstanding contracts edged lower. Ether and Solana exhibited similar trends, with open interest growing less than their respective spot prices. This indicates that short-position closures may have contributed more to the rebound than fresh leveraged bullish bets.

XRP derivatives show limited support for the rebound. XRP’s futures open interest decreased 1% while its spot price gained 1.4%, indicating that contracts were being closed as prices advanced. Its 24-hour open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD), which measures aggressive buying and selling at market prices, also remained negative. This suggests that derivatives traders have yet to provide strong confirmation of XRP’s recovery.

Zcash attracts new bullish positions. ZEC futures open interest increased 14%, exceeding its 11.5% price gain and indicating that traders added contracts during the rally. Zcash also recorded the strongest positive open-interest-adjusted CVD among major cryptocurrencies, pointing to aggressive buying activity. Tron (TRX), Tether Gold (XAUT) and Ether also posted positive readings, while Bitcoin remained neutral and Uniswap (UNI), Hedera (HBAR) and XRP recorded negative readings.

Funding rates indicate moderate bullish positioning. Annualized perpetual futures funding rates across major tokens ranged from 5% to 10%. These levels suggest that long positions remain favored, although leverage has not reached unusually elevated levels. The market therefore does not appear excessively overheated based on funding rates alone.

Implied volatility continues to decline. Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, dropped to 38% from 42% the previous day. Ether’s implied volatility also moved lower, suggesting options traders are anticipating more stable market conditions. The trend is consistent with relatively moderate funding rates.

Bitcoin traders maintain hedges as Ether options point higher. Decentralized derivatives platform Derive highlighted a large Bitcoin put spread executed earlier in the week that targeted a possible decline to $78,000. On Deribit, the $80,000 put was the most actively traded option, indicating continued demand for downside protection. Ether options showed a more optimistic outlook, with the $2,600 call leading trading activity over the previous 24 hours.

Token Performance

Celestia reaches a 2026 high. TIA, the token associated with the modular data-availability network Celestia, jumped 16% to approximately $0.68, making it the strongest performer in the CoinDesk 100. The token has gained roughly 59% over the past four weeks, reaching its highest price of the year.

The rally coincided with Celestia Fibre achieving a throughput benchmark of 3.07 terabits per second and the introduction of a proposed economic upgrade known as the Sustainable Blob Economy.

Injective climbs as trading volume expands. INJ, the token linked to the finance-oriented layer-1 blockchain, advanced 7.7% to approximately $9.19. Although no single catalyst clearly explained the gain, three U.S. exchange-traded fund applications associated with the token remain pending. CoinMarketCap data showed that INJ’s 24-hour trading volume reached $289.7 million, up 128% from the previous day.

LayerZero extends its rally. ZRO, the token associated with the cross-chain messaging protocol, rose 7.3% to around $2.24. The move extended gains linked to its ATLAS trading infrastructure, which directs most of its fees toward purchasing and burning ZRO tokens. Ether.fi’s liquid-restaking token, ETHFI, also gained 4.2%.

Starknet becomes the weakest performer. STRK dropped 9.6% to approximately $0.08, recording the largest decline in the CoinDesk 100 after rising 11% on Thursday. Stacks (STX), a Bitcoin-related layer token associated with staking, also fell 4.2%.

Other major cryptocurrencies post mixed gains. Solana advanced 1.2% to around $107, XRP rose 0.5%, and Monero (XMR) climbed 2.9% to approximately $565. BNB traded with little overall change.