Bitcoin is changing hands near $81,060 on Friday morning, retreating 0.22% since midnight UTC after breaking past $81,309 overnight, which had acted as a ceiling for the upward movement through the end of August.
This upward push is widespread rather than isolated to a single asset. Ether gained 4.52% across the preceding 24 hours, XRP rose 5.58%, and solana climbed 3.04%, accompanied by $318.6 million in liquidations throughout the broader market according to Coinalyze.
Privacy assets have surged the most aggressively. Zcash jumped 16.55% over a 24-hour period, monero gained 5.89%, and dash surged 19.24%, all without any obvious catalyst driving their gains.
Gold has moved up 0.17% to reach $4,480, silver increased 0.25% to $67.11, the dollar index remained unchanged at 99.063, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.42%.
Derivatives positioning
- Futures taker ratio turns bullish: The long-short taker volume ratio within futures currently sits at 51.4% to 48.5%, indicating a bullish bias, which aligns with bitcoin successfully surpassing the $80,000 mark. Takers execute trades at prices already present on the order book, thereby draining liquidity.
- Dash leads with rising price and open interest: DASH represents the top performer over the last day, advancing roughly 25% to trade at $53.10, while open interest climbed by approximately 20% simultaneously. An expanding open interest coupled with an appreciating price validates the ongoing uptrend and the accumulation of long positions. Furthermore, DASH exhibits positive funding rates alongside a positive normalized cumulative volume delta over the past day, both supporting a strong outlook. Funding rates stay close to 10%, indicating that the market is not overextended.
- Zcash mirrors dash’s bullish setup: Zcash, which anchors the privacy sector, ranks as the second-strongest performer over the past 24 hours. Its open interest metrics, cumulative volume delta, and perpetual futures reflect bullish characteristics comparable to DASH, again showing zero signs of overheating.
- Tron funding rates deepen into negative territory: Annualized perpetual funding rates for TRX have dropped to -59%, staying negative for the majority of the week except for a temporary easing toward -20% yesterday. Today’s figure has dropped even further, signaling an influx of short sellers becoming heavily congested on the bearish side, with participants choosing to maintain positions regardless of the expense. Consequently, TRX remains an asset to watch closely.
- Bitcoin futures see mild inflows: Open interest associated with BTC futures rests near 709K BTC compared to 687K BTC a day prior. This absolute figure is not unprecedented, seeing as open interest has hovered around 700K for some time, yet the slight upward drift alongside the price breaching $80,000 points to fresh capital entering the space, predominantly targeting upward exposure backed by positive funding rates and a positive open-interest-adjusted 24-hour cumulative volume delta.
- Ether follows, solana and XRP lag: Ether futures display a comparable modest rise in open interest. Conversely, solana’s open interest has remained stagnant over the preceding 24 to 48 hours, which is unexpected given the token’s value has moved past $100. XRP demonstrates an identical trend, showing no heightened activity in futures open interest yet.
- Volatility gauges point to calm: The 30-day implied volatility index for BTC stays near 40%, having retreated from a spike to 50% seen in August, signaling a tranquil market environment. This mirrors traditional finance, where the VIX stays near 14, marking its lowest reading since January. Minimal apprehension across the market underpins sustained upward price action, with ether’s volatility index reflecting a similar sentiment.
- Options market leans toward calls: Ether straddles were executed via the OTC desk Paradigm. A straddle is an options approach wagering on the magnitude of price fluctuation rather than a specific directional move. Bitcoin’s 24-hour volume distribution is dominated by call options, spearheaded by the $80,000 strike expiring on September 25, with trading activity concentrated between $85,000 and $95,000 strikes. Ether reveals a matching trend, where the heaviest trading activity centers on the $2,800 call expiring on September 18.
Token talk
- Pons prolonged a rally reaching 379.33% over a seven-day span, advancing 31.50% across 24 hours to hit $0.6607 on a volume of $151 million. The Robinhood Chain launchpad has contributed over $100 million in market capitalization throughout the week alone.
- Zcash climbed toward $967, securing a 16.55% increase over 24 hours and a 22.21% gain across the week. Open interest surged by 38.72% while funding rates turned negative at -0.0118%, indicating that short sellers are paying fees to sustain their positions as prices advance.
- Dash advanced 19.24% within 24 hours to reach $50.66 and grew 6.91% since midnight, bringing its weekly performance to a 30.52% increase on $204 million in volume.
- Monero increased 5.89% to land at $544 and added 3.82% since midnight, building upon a consistent upward trajectory delivering a 16.03% return over seven days with virtually no interruption.
- Uniswap sustained its recovery phase, rising 9.84% over 24 hours to $6.34 and 36.94% for the week, fully recovering from Thursday’s steep correction.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/04/bitcoin-clears-usd81-000-as-privacy-coins-lead-a-broad-crypto-rally.
