The crypto market is enjoying a rare period of calm after Tuesday’s selloff took bitcoin BTC$72,745.42 and ether ETH$2,085.15 to fresh multiyear lows.
BTC was recently trading at $76,100 having bounced from $72,870, the lowest since November 2024, while ETH is at $2,255 after dropping to a level not seen since May last year. Both assets in the black since midnight UTC, if only just.
The altcoin market is mixed, with privacy coins embarking on a much-needed bounce while Solana-based tokens like PUMP and JUP fell, losing 2% and 2.5%, respectively, since midnight.
The recovery occurred after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a government funding package to end a partial shutdown, lifting U.S. equity futures and other global markets. Precious metals rebounded, with gold back above $5,000 and silverat $90 having risen by almost 6%.
Derivatives positioning
- Traders continue to reduce their risk exposure, driving the cumulative notional open interest in all crypto futures down to $105.90 billion, the lowest since last April.
- Crypto futures bets worth $679 million have been liquidated in 24 hours, with bullish plays accounting for most of the tally.
- Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility climbed to an annualized 53%, the highest since Dec. 1, indicating heightened market fear.
- Open interest (OI) in bitcoin and ether futures dropped 0.7% and 2%, respectively. DOGE and recent outperformer HYPE have seen bigger capital outflows.
- OI in LINK futures increased 2% alongside positive cumulative volume delta. The combination points to influx of bullish pressure in the market. The 24-hour CVD is also positive for TRX, XLM and ZEC.
- Deribit-listed options are still showing a bias for bitcoin and ether puts, a sign of persistent demand for downside protection. Short-dated puts are trading at a 10-12 volatility premium to calls, a sign of peak fear.
- Block flows featured demand for bitcoin and ether put spreads, a bearish strategy.
Token talk
- Derivatives exchange tokens HYPE, LIT and ASTER all fell over the past 24 hours as traders rotated back into privacy coins.
- HYPE lost 8.5%, but remains up by 30% since the turn of the year.
- Monero XMR$373.73 bounced by 4% halt the bleeding after losing more than 50% of its value since Jan. 14. Zcash ZEC$258.77 is up by 3.4% after tumbling by more than 62% from its record high in November.
- Generally speaking, the altcoin market lost ground to bitcoin during the recent market plunge. Bitcoin dominance is now back above 59% having started the year at 58.5%.
- The divergence is typical of previous crypto bear markets, characterized by exaggerated altcoin moves in low liquidity environments.
- Crypto majors SOL, ADA and XRP are all trading at their lowest levels since 2024 having retraced the entire bullish rallies over the past few years.
Source: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/02/04/crypto-steadies-after-selloff-as-bitcoin-ether-rebound-from-multiyear-lows
