Broad Crypto Rally Gains Pace as DeFi and Layer-2 Tokens Outperform

Starknet and Arbitrum surged more than 17% as the 10-year Treasury yield slipped below 5%, while 98 of the 100 CoinDesk 100 constituents moved higher.

The crypto market’s recovery after the Federal Reserve’s rate hike continued Friday, with DeFi and layer-2 tokens taking the lead. Their strength marked a shift from Thursday, when privacy and perceived haven assets drove the advance, indicating that traders were once again showing greater appetite for risk.

Bitcoin moved above $78,000 during European trading, gaining 2.1% since midnight UTC and 1.9% over the previous 24 hours. Despite the rebound, BTC remained about 5% below its Sept. 4 high of $82,284 after roughly two weeks of range-bound trading.

The DeFi Select Index was among the market’s strongest performers, rising 8.3% since midnight UTC and 16% over 24 hours. Only two CoinDesk 100 assets were in negative territory.

A softer macro backdrop supported the move. The 10-year Treasury yield returned below 5%, while Brent crude fell under $103 after reaching $109 earlier in the week. Lower oil prices helped ease some of the inflation concerns that followed the Fed’s rate increase.

U.S. equity futures also advanced, with S&P 500 futures up 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures gaining 0.6%. Gold rose 1.1%, while silver climbed 2.8%.

Crypto Futures Show Renewed Activity

Derivatives data pointed to increasing market participation. Total crypto futures open interest expanded nearly 5% to $141.2 billion, even as daily trading volume declined 3% to $95 billion.

The taker buy-sell ratio remained broadly balanced, suggesting the increase in exposure was driven by position building rather than aggressive momentum chasing.

Bitcoin futures OI rose to 680,000 BTC from 670,000 BTC since midnight UTC. Rising open interest alongside higher prices is generally associated with the addition of long positions, although the latest increase was modest.

The total remains well below the 800,000 BTC peak recorded earlier this year, indicating that overall futures positioning has yet to return to previous extremes.

Binance’s top-trader long-short accounts ratio declined to 1.52 from almost 2 on Wednesday but remained bullish. The long-short positions ratio was considerably higher at 2.36.

The data suggests fewer large traders are holding long positions, while those that remain bullish have increased their position sizes.

UNI futures also recorded a sharp increase in open interest. Contracts tied to Uniswap rose to 86.61 million UNI from 76.89 million the previous day, approaching a record high.

The increase in derivatives exposure came alongside a 30% jump in UNI’s spot price as traders showed renewed interest in major DeFi assets amid expectations of more coordinated crypto regulation from the SEC and CFTC.

Bitcoin Volatility Falls to May Levels

The 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta was positive for most major tokens, with GRAM, SHIB, HBAR and BNB among the exceptions. Positive readings indicate more aggressive buying through market orders.

Bitcoin’s implied volatility also declined. With the Clarity Act vote and the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan meetings now completed, the 30-day annualized BVIV measure fell to 36%.

The reading is around the floor established in May, suggesting options traders expect relatively calmer conditions in the near term.

On Deribit, bitcoin’s one-week put-call skew moved into positive territory, showing that calls were relatively more expensive than puts. The one- and two-month skews continued to show a slight preference for puts.

Ether’s one-week skew was also bullish, although 24-hour options activity remained mixed, with both BTC calls and puts among the most actively traded contracts.

UNI, STRK and ARB Drive Altcoin Gains

Uniswap accounted for much of the DeFi Select Index’s advance. UNI climbed 13% since midnight UTC and 25% over 24 hours. Ethena’s ENA gained 9.6%, while Lido’s liquid-staking token rose 6.6%.

Layer-2 tokens were similarly strong. Starknet jumped 18% on the day and 21% over 24 hours, while Arbitrum advanced 17% and 25%. Stacks added 9.2%, and Optimism gained 8.9%.

Starknet reached its highest price since June 19. Arbitrum traded at 20.9 cents, marking its highest level since January.

Solana rose 4.5% to $106.14, but some ecosystem tokens posted significantly larger gains. Raydium surged 16% to $1.71, while Jito rose only 1.6%.

The contrast suggests trading interest was concentrated in decentralized-exchange activity rather than spread evenly across Solana-related assets.

Zcash, which led Thursday’s rally, gained only 1.6% Friday to $1,490.10 and was up 7.6% over 24 hours. Most of its recent advance therefore occurred during Thursday’s session.

Dash declined 0.53%, while World Liberty Financial’s WLFI slipped 0.31%. They were the only CoinDesk 100 constituents to trade lower.

CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index climbed to 44 from Tuesday’s low of 32, indicating that speculative activity has expanded as the broader crypto market recovers.