Capital is rotating back into riskier crypto assets as bitcoin pauses near recent highs. On Friday, bitcoin traded at $84,342, little changed since midnight UTC, while most of the rest of the market moved higher. Over the past 24 hours, 93 of the 100 constituents in the CoinDesk 100 advanced, and the CoinDesk 80 gained 4.7% versus a 1.0% rise in the CoinDesk 5.
According to CoinDesk, the move fits a familiar pattern from earlier cycles, when traders shift into more speculative tokens after bitcoin posts a strong rally and then stalls. Bitcoin climbed from below $63,000 in August to almost $87,000 on Tuesday before moving sideways. As that happened, CoinMarketCap’s altcoin season index rose to 56 from 45 a week ago and 38 a month ago, its highest reading in more than three months.
Compute and DeFi tokens led the advance. The CoinDesk Computing Index (CPUS) jumped 9.5% over 24 hours, helped by gains in Chainlink, internet computer (ICP) and bittensor (TAO). The DeFi Select Index (DFX) rose 8.7% over the same period, while the blended benchmark gained 2.5%.
The market also looked past one of the biggest exchange hacks in recent months. Bitget lost $351.6 million overnight after attackers compromised a backend system in the exchange’s wallet infrastructure and spoofed transaction data to trigger the platform’s own authorisation process. Chief executive Gracy Chen said private key compromise has been ruled out and that a $464 million user protection fund covers the loss. Withdrawals, however, remain suspended pending a security review.
The broader macro backdrop also turned more supportive after a difficult week. European shares opened sharply higher on reports that U.S. and Iranian negotiators are discussing a phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude traded below $100 at $98.94, gold rose 0.26% to $4,287, and the dollar index eased 0.11% to 101.14.
Derivatives positioning
Derivatives data point to a calmer market. The 24-hour long-short taker volume ratio is near 50%, easing from yesterday’s bearish 52% short-heavy tilt. Trading volume fell 17% to $206 billion, while open interest (OI) edged up 1.8% to $153 billion and liquidations dropped 63% to $228 million. That combination suggests traders are mostly holding existing positions rather than aggressively adding or cutting risk.
Bitcoin futures open interest slipped back below 700,000 BTC, reversing a brief spike that had signaled renewed appetite for leveraged longs. Even so, Binance whale positioning remains strongly bullish, with the long-short whale account ratio at 1.33 and the whale position ratio at 1.87. In ETH, SOL and XRP futures, open interest was unchanged over 24 hours, indicating that many traders are staying on the sidelines.
ZEC is another focus point: the token rose 7% while futures OI climbed 15.9%, a pattern that typically suggests fresh money entering the market rather than only short covering. CoinDesk also noted that LINK futures OI is up 28%, roughly twice the pace of its price gain over the same stretch. ONDO futures OI reached a record 1.07 billion tokens as the spot price hit its highest level since November 2025.
Token movers
The standout move came from quant (QNT), which traded at $98.93. It was up 9.8% since midnight UTC and 39% over 24 hours, the largest gain in the CoinDesk 100 on both measures. ONDO rose 8.4% and 32%, while lido dao (LDO) added 8.0% and 20%.
AI and compute-related names moved broadly in tandem. Chainlink (LINK) gained 3.7% to $13.70 and 12% over 24 hours, internet computer (ICP) rose 4.3% and 10%, bittensor (TAO) added 2.2% and 5.4%, and artificial superintelligence alliance (FET) advanced 1.6% on the day and 18% over the rolling window. In DeFi, ethena (ENA) climbed 10% over the day despite slipping 0.42% since midnight UTC, while uniswap (UNI) was little changed at 0.67% and 0.66%.
Among privacy tokens, zcash (ZEC) gained 2.5% to $1,584.86 and monero (XMR) rose 1.0% to $571.43. ZEC is now roughly 16% above its level a week ago and remains near record highs. The decliners were largely yesterday’s winners: solana-based DEX token raydium (RAY) fell 3.4%, bonk (BONK) dropped 2.7%, and litecoin (LTC) slipped 1.6% to $70.78, though all three except raydium were still higher on a 24-hour basis.
