Bitcoin Dominance Nears 60% as Risk Appetite Returns Across Crypto

Bitcoin advanced alongside most of the crypto market ahead of Friday’s U.S. employment report, while market indicators pointed to a shift toward greater risk-taking.

BTC traded above $86,000 at 9:10 UTC, up 3.4% over the previous 24 hours. Ether, XRP, Solana and BNB also posted gains, although Bitcoin remained the stronger performer.

SKY, AAVE and APT led the gains among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, each rising between 7% and 10%.

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved close to 60%, while USDT’s share of the crypto market has declined to roughly 6.3%. The changes suggest traders are allocating a larger portion of their capital to crypto assets rather than holding it in stablecoins, a sign of increased risk appetite.

Attention is now centered on the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET. FactSet’s consensus forecast calls for 90,000 jobs to have been added in September, compared with 162,000 in August. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.1%.

The impact on Treasury yields could be particularly important for Bitcoin. Traders are watching inflation-adjusted yields, with both the employment report and the Oct. 14 CPI release potentially influencing expectations for longer-term rates.

Oliver Carding, head of marketing at Tesseract Group, which manages $500 million, said the 10-year real yield near 3% is a key level to monitor. He said a sustained move above it could raise the possibility of Bitcoin revisiting $80,000-$82,000 instead of advancing toward $90,000.

Meanwhile, expectations for an October Federal Reserve rate hike have dropped to 30% from 70%. The shift followed dovish comments from New York Fed President John Williams and Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson. Lower expectations for monetary tightening can create a more supportive environment for risk assets.

A payrolls result significantly above expectations could challenge that backdrop. Stronger job growth could push rate-hike expectations higher and potentially add pressure to Bitcoin.

Derivatives Positioning

Bitcoin open interest rose to $22.4 billion from $20.9 billion a day earlier. Funding rates also moved higher on several venues, reaching 9%-10% annualized on Hyperliquid and OKX. Deribit’s three-month annualized basis remained above 6%.

Higher open interest combined with rising funding indicates that leveraged long positions are being added.

Options positioning remained call-heavy. The 24-hour put/call ratio showed 88% in favor of calls, compared with 83% previously. The one-week 25-delta skew declined to around 1.5% from 4%, while the at-the-money term structure remained in contango, rising from about 27%-28% at the front end to approximately 40% by late 2027.

CoinGlass recorded $344 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, up from $100 million. Shorts represented 72% of the liquidated positions and longs 28%. Bitcoin accounted for $132 million, Ether $70 million and other cryptocurrencies $26 million.

Binance’s liquidation heatmap places $87,400 among the key levels to monitor if Bitcoin continues higher.

Token Performance

Quant dropped roughly 15% over 24 hours to around $250 after a sharp multiday rally. The token had previously risen more than threefold before traders began locking in profits.

LayerZero climbed about 11%, while Aave gained roughly 9%. ZRO traded near $1.91 and AAVE reached around $182 as market participants focused on proposed protocol upgrades and fee-switch governance discussions.

Ethena fell approximately 9% to $0.25, while NEAR declined 8.6% and slipped below $5 after both had posted strong recent gains.

Dogwifhat gained 6.2% to around $0.26, and Pump.fun rose nearly 4% as speculative interest returned to portions of the memecoin market.

Stacks fell about 5% to $0.38, while Midnight declined roughly 5.6% to $0.04. Both tokens pulled back after recent rallies, with NIGHT having risen more than 20% earlier in the week.