Bitcoin, Ether Drift Sideways While Metals Shine Amid Light Liquidity: Crypto Markets Today

Bitcoin and ether traded sideways on Tuesday as thin liquidity kept crypto prices pinned, while a rally in gold and silver underscored a growing rotation toward defensive assets.

Digital-asset markets remained confined to a tight range amid subdued volumes and limited participation. Bitcoin’s 24-hour trading turnover dropped 25% to $35 billion, while ether volumes fell 21% to $24.6 billion, reflecting the muted environment.

Stagnant prices and falling volatility point to broad investor disengagement across crypto, even as precious metals continue to attract inflows. Gold hovered near $5,085 after posting a string of record highs over the past week, while silver has surged more than 57% year-to-date as investors seek haven exposure.

The shift into metals is particularly visible on derivatives exchange HyperLiquid, where daily silver futures volume is approaching $1 billion — trailing only bitcoin and ether. Funding rates, however, remain tilted negative, suggesting traders are increasingly positioning short into the rally rather than chasing further upside.

Macro headwinds continue to reinforce the cautious mood. U.S. President Donald Trump announced new 25% tariffs on South Korea on Monday, following a political dispute with the European Union over Greenland last week, adding to global trade uncertainty.

Derivatives

More than $270 million in leveraged crypto futures positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, with short positions accounting for most of the losses. The data indicates traders were braced for a deeper selloff after bitcoin’s 7% drop last week, only to be wrong-footed by a rebound from near $86,000 to just under $88,000.

Volmex’s 30-day implied volatility gauges for bitcoin and ether remain near multi-month lows, signaling limited stress in options markets despite bearish technical signals and weak flows.

Open interest in futures tied to HyperLiquid’s HYPE token jumped 30% to above 57 million HYPE, nearing December’s peak of 57.44 million. The decentralized exchange is said to have regained ground from rivals Aster and Lighter.

Futures open interest across ether, solana, XRP and dogecoin rose between 2% and 3%, while bitcoin open interest was largely unchanged. Perpetual funding rates across major tokens remain modestly positive, pointing to a mild bullish bias, though TRX and DOGE funding has turned negative, indicating increased short positioning.

On Deribit, BTC and ETH put options continue to trade at a premium to calls, reflecting lingering downside risks. Some traders note downside hedging has become crowded, leaving call options relatively inexpensive for those positioning for upside. Bearish strategies — including put spreads, volatility trades, straddles and strangles — accounted for nearly half of all BTC block trades over the past 24 hours. In ether markets, iron condors dominated, consistent with expectations for continued range-bound price action.

Token Talk

Robust turnover in silver futures has helped lift HyperLiquid’s HYPE token more than 22% over the past 24 hours, with trading volume more than doubling to $510 million.

Privacy-focused tokens zcash (ZEC) and monero (XMR) gained 4% and 3%, respectively, since midnight UTC, outperforming bitcoin and major altcoins such as ether, XRP and solana, which declined between 0.4% and 1%.

Pump.fun’s native PUMP token rose 14.5% over the same period as traders continued to seek opportunities in the memecoin segment despite subdued broader markets. January trading volume on Pump.fun has already exceeded $10 billion — its strongest month since June — with four days remaining, according to DefiLlama.

The bitcoin-heavy CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) is little changed year-to-date, while the altcoin-weighted CoinDesk 80 Index (CD80) has gained 3.6%.