Bitcoin’s early-week rally unraveled as ETF outflows, derivatives deleveraging, and weak altcoin reactions weighed on the broader crypto market. During the European morning session, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped to $91,200, down from a weekly high of $94,200 on Wednesday.
The pullback was mostly confined to crypto markets. U.S. equities were stable in pre-market trading, while the FTSE 100 rose 0.15%, highlighting the localized nature of the sell-off.
The pressure is largely driven by record outflows from BlackRock’s IBIT Bitcoin ETF, with an additional $113 million withdrawn on Thursday, as crypto bulls struggled to regain market control. The Fear & Greed Index remains depressed at 25/100, continuing its streak below neutral for over a month.
Derivatives and market positioning
BTC futures indicate ongoing caution, with aggressive deleveraging. Open interest (OI) has declined to $21 billion from $25 billion a month ago, reflecting reduced leverage and exposure. The three-month annualized basis holds at 4%-5%, and funding rates remain steady at 5%-6%.
BTC options maintain a bullish bias despite lower volatility. Short-term implied volatility has shifted from backwardation to contango, signaling expectations for smaller near-term price swings. Call options dominate, with 57% of 24-hour option volume in calls, and the one-week 25-delta skew has risen to 8%, suggesting traders are still paying for short-term upside exposure.
Recent BTC volatility led to $280 million in liquidations over 24 hours, including $200 million in longs, with ETH ($88 million) and BTC ($85 million) accounting for the largest nominal liquidations.
Altcoins under pressure
The BTC/USDT liquidation heatmap on Binance shows concentrated long liquidations around $90,600, a key support level to watch.
Altcoins broadly fell, with TAO, HYPE, and NEAR losing over 6.5%. Ethereum (ETH) retraced 2.62% from its daily high following the Fusaka upgrade, showing that even highly anticipated catalysts are failing to drive momentum.
The CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index mirrored ETH’s decline, while CDMEME, the memecoin index, dropped 5.8%. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season indicator remains at 21/100, signaling continued preference for Bitcoin and stablecoins.
Notable exceptions included Zcash (ZEC) at $339.73, up 4.7%, rebounding from an oversold RSI, and TRX, up 1.8%, showing gains across daily, weekly, and monthly charts despite the broader market weakness.
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