Bitcoin moved in a narrow range on Friday as cooling derivatives activity pointed to softer short-term momentum, while altcoins showed mixed trends and Zcash attracted renewed bullish interest.
The leading cryptocurrency remained pinned between $77,500 and $78,500 since midnight UTC, reflecting subdued volatility. The consolidation follows a failed breakout attempt near $80,000 earlier in the week. Even so, the broader structure remains positive, with BTC continuing its pattern of higher highs and higher lows through April.
Ethereum followed a similar path, slipping around 0.9% over the same period while also trading within a tight band.
In traditional markets, U.S. equity futures were mixed. Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.5% on the back of strong tech earnings, while S&P 500 futures edged slightly lower. The U.S. Dollar Index held steady despite comments from Donald Trump confirming a three-week extension of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire. The dollar had weakened when the truce was initially announced earlier this month.
In crypto derivatives, bitcoin futures open interest dropped more than 6% over the past 24 hours to 744,300 BTC, signaling traders are scaling back leveraged exposure after the rally stalled below $80,000. Additional indicators point to waning momentum: the open interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta has turned negative, showing stronger selling pressure, while funding rates remain slightly negative, indicating a bias toward short positions.
Activity across major altcoin futures—including ETH, SOL, and XRP—remained subdued. Zcash, however, stood out, with open interest climbing nearly 7.5% to a 10-day high and trading volume surging 80%. Strong positive cumulative volume delta alongside positive funding rates suggests aggressive buying and sustained bullish positioning in the token.
Despite the recent pause in BTC and ETH prices, market participants appear to view it as a temporary consolidation. This is reflected in declining implied volatility, with bitcoin’s 30-day volatility index dropping to 42%, its lowest since late January, while ether’s fell below 65%, also marking a multi-month low.
Options data from Deribit continues to show a defensive tilt, with risk reversals favoring put options across maturities. This indicates ongoing downside hedging alongside strategies like covered call selling to monetize reduced upside volatility.
Among sector indices, the CoinDesk Memecoin Index was the only one to post gains, edging slightly higher, while DeFi and computing indices each fell around 1%. Within DeFi, tokens such as LDO and MORPHO led declines, dropping between 3% and 3.8% as sentiment remains pressured following last weekend’s $290 million KelpDAO exploit.
Zcash trimmed a portion of its gains on Friday but still held an advance of more than 7% over the past 24 hours, supported by its recent listing on Robinhood.
Meanwhile, CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index rose to 39 out of 100, indicating a slight pickup in speculative activity as bitcoin continues to trade sideways.
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