Crypto Markets Calm After Volatile Rally as Shorts Melt and Options Shift

Bitcoin nudged downward to about $80,250 after an overnight pullback, trading just above the $80,000 mark following a sharp rally from near $78,000 on Wednesday. Ether also eased, and the broader CoinDesk 80 Index ticked higher as oil reversed much of its earlier selloff and U.S. equities rose amid midterm-related market flows.

Over the past 24 hours bitcoin and ether have posted gains, while Brent crude sits near $95 a barrel after swinging sharply earlier in the week. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows on Wednesday, reversing a short outflow streak, and equity futures are mixed as traders await fresh labor data due this week.

Derivatives positioning

• Short liquidations drove the move: Total crypto futures volume climbed roughly 15% to $244 billion, while open interest barely changed, implying most activity was rotation rather than new capital. Liquidations surged about 53% to $715 million, with roughly 65% of those liquidations hitting short positions — indicating many bearish bets were forced closed. The taker buy-sell ratio shifted slightly toward selling at 50.6% versus a buy lean the day before.
• Bitcoin’s rally largely a short squeeze: BTC open interest increased only marginally despite a multi-percent price rise; about 93% of the $267 million in BTC liquidations were shorts. Together this points to forced short exits as the main rally engine rather than a flood of fresh longs. Still, positioning retains a bullish tilt: funding rates are positive and higher than yesterday, so longs are paying shorts.
• NEAR and ZEC diverge: NEAR showed the heaviest market-order buying yesterday but has weakened today, with open interest down 2.7% alongside a 1.1% price drop — suggesting capital is leaving. Funding remains positive for NEAR. ZEC’s open interest grew 3.5% as its price climbed 3.6%, but yesterday’s big inflows did not repeat and overall volume declined 13%.
• CVD mixed across tokens: OI-normalized cumulative volume delta — a read on market-order buying vs selling — is mixed across the market. SUI appears among the strongest on this measure; TRX, GRAM and BNB sit among the weaker names.
• Funding skew favors longs: Most coins show positive funding, meaning long traders are paying shorts. Monero remains among the most positive funding rates (though down from yesterday), while GRAM and TRX show negative funding, benefiting short holders.
• Option skew collapses: Bitcoin’s one-week skew (put premium over calls) has dropped sharply to about 2% from roughly 11% a day earlier. Short-dated put premium has nearly vanished, signaling reduced demand for immediate downside protection. One-week implied volatility has eased to around 33%.
• Calls dominate BTC option activity: Five of the six most traded bitcoin option contracts are calls at strikes between $78,000 and $85,000; only one put remains among the busiest. Ether’s options market contrasts with more put activity, with four of six top contracts below the current price.

Token highlights

• Injective (INJ): INJ led the CoinDesk 100 after gains following a filing tied to a potential Nasdaq-listed staked INJ ETF (symbol INJC). The token climbed roughly 6% since midnight UTC and is up near 10% over the past 24 hours.
• Venice token (VVV): After being the top performer on Wednesday, VVV retraced about 11% over the next 24 hours.
• Official trump (TRUMP) & WLFI: TRUMP plunged around 14% over the day, the weakest among the top 100 on CoinMarketCap, while World Liberty Financial (WLFI) lost roughly 4%; both moves coincided with the Democrats’ midterm outcomes.
• Market sentiment gauges: The CoinMarketCap fear and greed index climbed to 42 from 37, nudging back into neutral territory. The altcoin season indicator sits at 49.

What to watch next: incoming U.S. labor reports and ongoing flows into spot bitcoin ETFs are likely to shape near-term crypto market direction, while options and funding dynamics will indicate whether the recent squeeze extends or stalls.