Bitcoin slipped 1.3% to around $79,300 on Monday, unable to clear resistance at $81,400 after a weekend altcoin rally lost steam. Futures traders turned bearish as bitcoin open interest fell to its lowest since March, while XRP positioning cooled and chainlink stayed one of the few majors holding a bid.
Bitcoin is trading around $79,300, down 1.3% since midnight UTC, after spending the weekend trapped in a tight range below $81,400. The pullback came as Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.3% over the same window, on a U.S. market holiday, extending a divergence between crypto and equities that ran through last week.
Altcoins did most of the weekend's work and are now giving part of it back. Bittensor, kaspa, internet computer and celestia each gained more than 12% over 24 hours, but most of that move landed before midnight UTC, and gains have since slowed.
Futures traders turn bearish
Sentiment in crypto futures has flipped short, with bearish bets accounting for 51.6% of taker flow, a reversal from Friday's bullish reading. The likely catalyst is the weekend escalation of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran along with Fed rate-increase fears, though those concerns appear overdone.
Capital continues to exit bitcoin open interest, which has dropped to 670,000 BTC from 709,000 on Friday, the lowest level since March 23. Annualized perpetual funding rates are approaching zero, losing the bullish bias seen in recent readings of 8% to 10%.
XRP cools while chainlink holds a bid
Open interest in XRP futures has also cooled, to 2.29 billion tokens, the lowest since Aug. 7 and down from a mid-month peak of 2.78 billion, leaving the price choppy between $1.35 and $1.45. Chainlink, by contrast, is up 1% since midnight UTC at $13.37, one of the few majors retaining a bid. It stands up 18.6% on the week.
Bitcoin's and ether's 30-day implied volatility indexes continue to project calm, hovering near recent lows.
Source: CoinDesk
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