Crypto Market Recovers With Asian Stocks as Zcash Rallies Ahead of Network Upgrade

Bitcoin rose to a seven-day high on Wednesday as Asian technology stocks staged a recovery and news of a possible SpaceX-Tesla merger lifted investor sentiment.

BTC reached $83,725.98 before settling near $83,500, marking a 0.6% increase since midnight UTC. Strong corporate earnings helped fuel gains in Asian technology shares, providing support for cryptocurrencies and other risk-sensitive assets.

SpaceX and Super Micro Computer (SMCI) helped drive the positive mood after reporting strong U.S. results on Tuesday. South Korea’s Kospi gained 3.29%, while Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.44%. Elon Musk said SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA) had formed special committees to evaluate a potential merger. The move could bring together more than 30,000 BTC, worth approximately $2.5 billion, held across the two companies’ balance sheets.

Altcoins also advanced alongside Bitcoin. Ether (ETH) gained 0.6% to trade near $2,460, while the CoinDesk 80 (CD80) rose 0.47% and the CoinDesk 5 (CD5) added 0.64%. The CoinDesk Memecoin Index climbed 1.2%, outperforming the CoinDesk 100’s 0.84% increase.

Elsewhere, Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade is scheduled to go live Wednesday, targeting transaction finality of around 150 milliseconds. Meta Platforms (META) will announce its earnings after the U.S. market closes.

Futures markets see increased activity

Crypto derivatives trading strengthened over the past 24 hours, with futures volume climbing 19% to $190 billion. Open interest rose nearly 4% to $145 billion, while liquidations increased 76% to $284 million. The taker long-to-short volume ratio reached approximately 53% to 47%, suggesting a modest bullish tilt among traders.

Bitcoin and Ether’s price advances have outpaced the growth in some leveraged positions, indicating that the rally has attracted limited additional capital. BTC gained 2.6% over 24 hours, while ETH advanced 3.35%. Their futures open interest increased 3% and 2%, respectively. Bitcoin’s price and OI moved at a similar pace, while Ether’s slower OI growth suggests traders may have reduced their exposure in coin terms. Overall, market leverage remains below historical highs.

Privacy tokens have attracted fresh speculative positions. Zcash (ZEC) recorded a 24% jump in open interest alongside a 12% price increase. Its annualized funding rate reached 10%, but its 24-hour open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD) remained negative, suggesting sellers continued to hit bids during the rally.

Monero (XMR) open interest rose 8% to more than $300 million, approaching record levels. Its spot price gained 2%, and its funding rate reached 4%. Monero also posted a positive CVD, setting it apart from other major cryptocurrencies.

Short sellers in BTW face substantial funding expenses, with the token’s annualized funding rate at minus 77%. The imbalance could make the asset vulnerable to sharp price swings if a rally forces bearish traders to close their positions. Arbitrum (ARB) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) also recorded slightly negative funding rates.

Options data points to continued caution

Expected volatility in Bitcoin and Ether has declined. Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, fell below 40%, reversing its brief move above 42% on October 15. Ether’s EVIV showed a similar pattern, indicating that options traders expect relatively subdued price movements.

Bitcoin options still show demand for downside protection. Deribit’s one-month put-call skew stood at 8%, indicating that puts were relatively more expensive than calls. The one-week and three-month measures displayed a similar bias.

Despite this defensive positioning, calls with strike prices above Bitcoin’s current market price were among the five most-traded options. Much of the activity came from synthetic multi-leg strategies rather than straightforward bullish bets.

Ether options also leaned toward puts, although the preference was less pronounced than in Bitcoin’s market. Trading volumes reflected mixed sentiment among ETH options participants.

Zcash and NEAR lead the altcoin market

Zcash (ZEC) gained 0.9% since midnight UTC to approximately $1,260, extending its 24-hour advance to around 11%. The rally followed developers’ announcement of a November activation date for the NU7 upgrade. The update will reduce block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, allowing payments to confirm three times faster. It will also direct 60% of transaction fees into a reserve for gradual distribution. Despite the recent rebound, ZEC remains down about 12% over the past month.

Near Protocol (NEAR) led the CoinDesk 100 with a 6% gain to approximately $5.23. The increase coincided with rising activity on NEAR Intents, its cross-chain swap product, which uses part of its fees to fund token buybacks. A governance proposal to reduce annual issuance from 2.5% to 1.6% over two years also drew attention.

Ethena (ENA) advanced 4.8%, recovering some ground after declining approximately 22% over the past month. USDe, the synthetic dollar associated with the project, has a supply of roughly $4.7 billion, still below the $7.5 billion threshold needed to trigger ENA buybacks.

Aerodrome (AERO) posted the largest decline in the CoinDesk 100, falling 4.4% and giving back part of its approximately 6% weekly gain. Morpho (MORPHO) dropped 2.7% as decentralized finance tokens underperformed. The sector index advanced just 0.22%, compared with a 0.84% rise in the CoinDesk 100.

Injective (INJ) declined 2.1%, trimming its roughly 18% gain over the past month. Pending U.S. exchange-traded fund applications tied to the token had supported its recent rally.