Bitcoin BTC$80,711.99 is exchanging hands near $77,890 on Thursday morning, advancing 0.76% since midnight UTC and regaining a portion of Wednesday’s pullback, though it remains down 2.89% over the trailing seven days.
Precious metals advanced, with gold gaining 0.97% to approximately $4,434 and silver climbing 0.88% to $65.94 following Wednesday retracements, while Nasdaq 100 futures increased 0.2% and S&P 500 futures added 0.15%, supported by the declining dollar index (DXY), which dropped 0.32% down to 99.259.
Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds registered $9.3 million in outflows, marking a second straight day of net redemptions, though this total is minimal compared to Tuesday’s $239 million figure.
Alternative cryptocurrencies are showing broad strength with the altseason gauge resting at 35 out of 100, and gains concentrated in assets like lighter (LIT) and arbitrum ARB$0.1372, with the latter continuing to benefit from revenue generation stemming from its agreement with Robinhood Chain.
Derivatives positioning
- Sentiment turns neutral: The 24-hour long-to-short taker volume indicator across crypto futures has reached equilibrium, transitioning from the bearish posture seen yesterday. Total open interest is holding steady around $136 billion, whereas aggregate trading volume contracted by 7% down to $187 billion.
- ARB open interest hits record: Arbitrum’s ARB stands out once again as the top-performing top-100 digital asset over the last 24 hours. Its open interest expanded nearly 10% to reach 1.58 billion ARB, marking an all-time high according to metrics provided by Coinglass. The remainder of the market profile appears just as optimistic as Tuesday, reflected in positive readings for both the 24-hour open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta and annualized perpetual funding rates.
- LIT rally lacks derivatives backing: The LIT token from Lighter DEX ranks as the second-strongest performer over the past day, with its spot valuation hitting a record high of $2.85. Unlike ARB, however, derivatives participation remains minimal, as open interest has continued to slide despite the rising price. This divergence signals that the upward movement is likely fueled entirely by spot buying interest or could reverse quickly due to the evident lack of futures market support.
- Bulls lead major token futures: In general, buyers appear to be driving price action across futures contracts tied to leading assets like bitcoin and ether. This is demonstrated by positive 24-hour open-interest-adjusted CVDs, indicating that a higher volume of long positions are executed using market orders rather than passive limit orders, which serves as an encouraging sign for traders anticipating sustained price appreciation.
- TRX shorts ease: The annualized perpetual funding rate for TRX currently sits near -23%, improving from the -80% levels observed earlier in the week. Although the prevailing market bias is still short-leaning, the moderation in bearish positioning diminishes the threat of an aggressive short squeeze typically triggered by overcrowded and overleveraged short positions.
- Volatility signals calm: Thirty-day implied volatility benchmarks for both bitcoin and ether remain stable, reinforcing continued bullish momentum in spot markets and indicating a lack of anxiety within options trading.
- Options flow stays bullish for BTC: Deribit options data shows that higher-strike call contracts at the $82,000 and $84,000 marks continue to lead 24-hour volume metrics, pointing to a persistent bullish sentiment. Nonetheless, BTC’s seven-day skew metric, which measures the valuation gap between puts and calls, has retreated from recent peaks, while ether options flows presented a more mixed picture.
Token talk
- Pons (PONS) paces the altcoin sector on Thursday, surging 30.85% across a 24-hour window to reach 50 cents, bringing its weekly gain to 318.72%. As the premier revenue generator on Robinhood Chain, the launchpad directs about 80% of its protocol revenue toward repurchasing and burning its native coin, establishing a far more direct value capture mechanism than competing tokens built around the same narrative.
- Arbitrum ARB$0.1372 sustained its upward trajectory into a third consecutive session, rising 16.77% over 24 hours to 13 cents and pushing its market valuation above $916 million. Daily trading turnover stays elevated at $486 million, representing more than nine times the average daily volume of roughly $50 million recorded last week.
- Uniswap (UNI) suffered a sharp correction, dropping 8.62% over 24 hours to $5.75 to become the primary large-cap underperformer of the session, though it preserves a 29.11% weekly advance. UNI had previously ranked among the most resilient decentralized finance performers prior to Thursday’s pullback.
- Monero (XMR), the privacy-focused asset, maintained its strong momentum by advancing 4.30% since midnight to trade near $515, alongside pump.fun rising 4.96% to $0.004296, while LIT also attracted bids with a 3.13% bump to $3.92.
- Bittensor (TAO) added 2.33% since midnight to settle at $222.31, though it trades significantly below the $247 level observed one week prior.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/03/bitcoin-recovers-toward-usd78-000-as-pons-and-arbitrum-extend-robinhood-chain-rally.
