Bitcoin climbed approximately 0.8% since midnight UTC to reach $81,400 on Monday, recovering after dipping below $80,000 on Tuesday. The broader digital asset market also displayed strength, as ether gained 0.9% and the CoinDesk Memecoin Index increased by 1.3%.
Asian semiconductor equities drove a recovery in artificial intelligence shares. South Korea’s Kospi index surged 6.6% as SK Hynix jumped roughly 11% following the release of a profit figure that was seven times higher than before. Additionally, Nasdaq-100 index futures picked up 0.5%.
The Federal Reserve is scheduled to reveal its monetary policy outcome concerning U.S. borrowing costs at 18:00 UTC, with the FedWatch tool from CME indicating roughly a 92% probability of no adjustment. Market participants will monitor Chair Kevin Wash’s press briefing for any indicators regarding potential future rate hikes.
American spot ETFs recorded $176 million in inflows on Tuesday, marking a second consecutive day of capital additions, while Alphabet and Microsoft are set to publish financial results after the market close.
Derivatives Positioning
- Futures activity: Trading volume across crypto futures expanded by 7.5% over a 24-hour period to hit $163.2 billion, whereas open interest grew by a modest 1.3%. This indicates that market activity increased without participants taking on substantial additional risk exposure. Liquidations surged by 38% to reach $183.6 million. Taker volume maintained a near-even split of 50.7% for longs and 49.3% for shorts.
- BTC and ETH: BTC moved up 2.3% while its open interest contracted by 0.1%, showing the upward movement was not driven by new leveraged positions. ETH gained 2.7% alongside a 1.7% increase in open interest, which again lagged behind the price change. Funding rates remained positive yet subdued for both assets, sitting at 0.0090% for BTC and 0.0079% for ETH, closely tracking the 0.01% baseline and indicating no signs of market overcrowding. Furthermore, BTC and ETH accounted for the largest liquidation amounts at $56.4 million and $46.0 million, respectively, representing over half of the market-wide total.
- ZEC sees capital inflows: Zcash demonstrated the clearest evidence of fresh capital entering among major coins, with its open interest rising 14% alongside a 6.3% price appreciation. With funding sitting at 0.0076%, this accumulation does not appear excessive. Liquidations for ZEC hit $8.6 million, leading all altcoins.
- Mixed action in gold: Open interest for XAU futures contracted by 10% even though prices crept up 1.4%, signaling capital exiting the asset. Conversely, open interest for Tether’s gold-backed token, XAUT, expanded by 11.6% accompanied by a 1.3% price increase, reflecting incoming capital.
- Traders lean bearish on crude oil: Open interest for front-month crude oil futures (CL) grew 3.3% while prices dipped 0.7%, and trading volume climbed 26%. Funding slipped into negative territory at -0.0135%, marking the lowest level among major contracts and signaling that perpetual traders are favoring short positions.
- Chip rally: SOXL, a 3x leveraged semiconductor exchange-traded fund, jumped 12%, though open interest increased by only 2%. SK Hynix advanced 8.7% with a 3.9% boost in open interest, whereas SanDisk rose 7.1% while open interest declined 1.8%. This rally outpaced the influx of fresh capital. Funding remained slightly negative for SOXL and SK Hynix and hovered near zero for SanDisk, confirming the semiconductor rally is not fueled by crowded long positions.
- Cumulative volume delta shows bullish sentiment: The majority of tokens maintained positive 24-hour open-interest-adjusted CVD. This demonstrates that aggressive market buy orders outweighed sell orders relative to open interest. XLM posted the highest positive CVD, whereas XAUT recorded the most negative reading.
- Options show bias for puts is easing: On Deribit, the one-week put-call skew for bitcoin dropped below 1% down from nearly 10% during the preceding week. This shift demonstrates that the demand for downside protection via puts is diminishing. Nevertheless, the one-month, three-month, and six-month skews continue to exhibit a strong preference for puts. The $65,000 put option expiring on October 30 represented the most actively traded contract over the prior 24 hours. Regarding ether, the $3,400 call option expiring on October 29 recorded the highest trading volume.
Token talk
- Pepe, the frog-themed memecoin running on Ethereum, climbed 9.4% to top the CoinDesk 100 Index on Wednesday. This upward movement aligned with a disclosure from Arkham Intelligence indicating that specific wallets identified with Tron creator Justin Sun contain approximately $51 million worth of the asset, positioning him as the largest holder outside of centralized trading platforms. Simultaneously, Floki and dogecoin experienced gains of 3.4% and 1.9%, respectively.
- Artificial intelligence-associated tokens failed to mirror the rebound seen in AI equities for a second consecutive session, as Venice—the utility token for a privacy-oriented AI network—dropped 8.2%, Grass declined 3.3%, and Kite fell 2.4%.
- Decentralized finance tokens likewise lagged behind, with the CoinDesk DeFi Index (DFX) gaining just 0.6% compared to a 0.9% increase for the broader CoinDesk 80, marking the smallest return among all CoinDesk indices.
- The “Altcoin Season” index provided by CoinMarketCap moved upward to 60 out of 100, rising from 57 on Tuesday.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/10/28/bitcoin-rebounds-above-usd81-000-as-asian-chip-rally-spills-into-crypto-pepe-jumps-9.
