Bitcoin advanced as much as 1.6% starting from midnight UTC to reach $79,742 after United States Central Command announced the destruction of five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday evening, prompting Tehran to retaliate with missile strikes against American bases located in Jordan.
Brent crude surpassed $100 per barrel for the initial time since July. The primary cryptocurrency recently changed hands around $79,000. Ether traded 0.3% higher at $2,490, and XRP gained 0.4% to reach $1.42.
This upward movement occurs amid a risk-off sentiment across other financial venues. The Stoxx Europe 600 dropped 0.5% at the European market open, following a 1.2% reduction in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Tuesday. Nasdaq 100 index futures remained nearly unchanged since midnight.
Instead, the digital asset market is tracking precious metals. Gold climbed 1.06% to $4,401, while silver increased by 1.33%. This performance nearly mirrors the inversion of September 2, when United States strikes targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities pulled bitcoin down alongside equities.
U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds experienced $46.65 million in net outflows on Tuesday, according to SoSoValue data, following $174.6 million in net inflows registered on Friday.
Derivatives positioning
- Taker ratio turns neutral: The taker buy-sell volume ratio shifted to a neutral stance following two consecutive days of bearish readings, aligning with bitcoin recovering past the $79,000 threshold earlier today. Takers represent participants who execute orders utilizing market orders, as opposed to makers who establish passive limit orders.
- Short buildup unwinds: The retreat of BTC from the $80,000 mark yesterday corresponded with an increase in open interest across major USD- and USDT-denominated futures contracts, signaling the accumulation of short positions. Approximately 24 hours later, that identical open interest metric decreased alongside the recovery in spot prices, according to analytics provider Velo. The short positions established yesterday may have been closed out, though this reduction additionally indicates that no fresh bullish capital entered the space.
- Positioning stays light: The aggregate bitcoin open interest metric remains comfortably below 700,000 contracts, demonstrating that overall market positioning is still subdued. The identical condition applies to the ether market.
- HYPE’s rally looks spot-driven: HYPE achieved an all-time peak of $88 over the weekend and has subsequently stabilized just beneath that valuation, after prices escalated by 60% during August. Nonetheless, the open interest metric has barely shifted, resting at 1.02 million HYPE, which is significantly lower than the January high of approximately 59 million HYPE. This divergence implies that the spot price appreciation stemmed predominantly from spot market activity rather than leveraged futures trading.
- ZEC longs build: Zcash futures open interest ticked upward, breaking a two-day downward streak as the asset’s price reached an all-time high of $1,260. Open interest has expanded steadily alongside pricing since August 1, a configuration indicating the accumulation of long positions. The 24-hour cumulative volume delta for ZEC stands as the most positive amongst major digital assets, signaling that buyers have demonstrated greater aggression by trading through market orders rather than passive limit orders.
- UNI diverges lower: Conversely, UNI sits on the opposite end of the cumulative volume delta spectrum, encountering downward pressure for a third consecutive session while changing hands near $6.65, down 1.4% since midnight UTC. This negative cumulative volume delta coupled with near-record futures open interest points toward prospective volatility ahead.
- Bitcoin vol gauge ticks higher: Traders might want to monitor bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, known as BVIV, which currently trades above its 50-day and 100-day simple moving averages. This development could signal the initiation of another volatility surge, a characteristic frequently observed during bear markets, although the price appreciation in August similarly transpired against a backdrop of rising BVIV. The corresponding ether gauge, EVIV, also targets a breakout above its 100-day simple moving average.
- Options traders eye CPI: Among options contracts listed on Deribit, front-end bitcoin volatility stays relatively flat, indicating that participants are not yet pricing in drastic fluctuations ahead of the Consumer Price Index announcement on Friday. Front-end risk reversals have shifted substantially to favor call options, or bullish speculations, per Laser Digital.
- Calls dominate volume leaders: The top five most actively traded instruments by 24-hour volume consist entirely of call options, spanning strike prices from $80,000 to $90,000. The same trend applies to ether.
Token talk
- Leading the CoinDesk 100 is the Solana-based Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network asset grass, which increased 12% since midnight UTC to $0.37 and recorded an 11% gain over 24 hours.
- Venice Token advanced 6.5% on the day to reach $27.59 and is up 55% over a 24-hour period after establishing an all-time high, concurrent with the artificial intelligence platform completing the largest discretionary token burn in its corporate history and revealing an integration with NEAR.
- Perpetual exchange asset Lighter ascended 9% to $5.27, extending an 11% 24-hour gain supported by consecutive sessions where daily trading volume surpassed $125 million—escalating from the prior Wednesday daily volume aggregate of $92 million.
- The privacy sector experienced a resurgence, with zcash expanding 5.1% to $1,238.61 while dash climbed 4.7% to $65.42. Monero proved to be the exception, retreating 0.12% intraday and 4.6% across 24 hours.
- Raydium rebounded sharply, rising 5.8% to $1.31 and 19% across 24 hours subsequent to a 6.7% decline on Tuesday, marking the most substantial reversal within the CoinDesk 100.
- Ethena added 5.3% and NEAR Protocol gained 4.9% to reach $2.43, with the latter benefiting from the aforementioned Venice integration announcement.
- Polkadot registered as the session’s primary laggard, dropping 5.8% to $1.17. It maintains a 10% gain across a 24-hour timeframe, placing the entirety of its drawdown after midnight UTC.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/09/bitcoin-climbs-as-oil-tops-usd100-equities-drop-after-iran-strikes.
