Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin Price Remains Under Pressure

Bitcoin (BTC) has bounced from early Asian-session lows near $108,760 to over $110,000, but the prospects of sustained recovery appear bleak as on-chain activity points to weak network adoption. "The price momentum is weakening with the RSI close to the oversold zone and a bearish MACD," said Timothy Misir, head of research, BRN . "The Spot CVD at –$199 million shows that sellers are in control with spot volume signaling a lack of demand bid. Conversely, Daily Active Addresses fell to 692K (below the low band), signaling weaker network participation." The broader market remains under pressure with the CoinDesk 20 and CoinDesk 80 indices down 2% and 1.7% on a 24-hour ￰0￱ Positioning Leveraged crypto bulls have been burned, with futures bets worth $940 million liquidated in the past 24 ￰1￱ than $800 million were long positions betting on price ￰2￱ alone accounted for $320 million in liquidations.

Still, overall open interest (OI) in BTC remains elevated near lifetime highs above 740K ￰3￱ ether's case, the OI has pulled back to 14 million ETH from 14.60 million ￰4￱ in SOL, XRP, DOGE, ADA, and LINK also dropped in the past 24 hours, indicating net capital ￰5￱ the price volatility, funding rates for most major tokens, excluding SHIB, ADA and SOL, remains positive to suggest dominance of bullish long ￰6￱ in the CME-listed standard BTC futures has fallen back to 137.3K from 145.2K, reversing the minor bounce from early this ￰7￱ shows that institutional interest in trading these regulated derivatives remains ￰8￱ in options, however, has continued to increase, reaching its highest since late May, CME's ether futures OI remains elevated at 2.05 million ETH, just shy of the record 2.15 million ETH on Aug. 22.

Meanwhile, OI in ether options is now at its highest since September last ￰9￱ Deribit, the impending multibillion-dollar expiry on Friday shows a bias towards BTC puts, indicative of concerns prices are set to drop ￰10￱ impending ether expiry paints a more balanced ￰11￱ on the OTC desk at Paradigm have been mixed, featuring strategies such as outright put buying and put spreads in BTC, as well as calls and risk reversals in ￰12￱ Talk Blue-chip NFT collections faced steep weekly losses as ether (ETH) pulled back from record highs, wiping more than 10% off the value of most top ￰13￱ Penguins , the leading collection by trading volume, dropped 17% to a 10.32 ETH floor, showing that even the sector’s strongest liquidity magnet couldn’t escape the ￰14￱ Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) lost 14.7% to 9.59 ETH, while Doodles recorded one of the sharpest corrections, falling 18.9% to 0.73 ￰15￱ projects also slumped: Moonbirds fell 10.5%, and Lil Pudgys shed 14.6%, reflecting how price pressure cascaded across both flagship and derivative ￰16￱ proved most resilient, losing just 1.35% over the week, underscoring its status as the market’s defensive benchmark when risk appetite ￰17￱ lower floors, trading activity stayed ￰18￱ Penguins saw 2,112 ETH ($9.36 million) in weekly volume, followed by Moonbirds (1,979 ETH), CryptoPunks (1,879 ETH), and BAYC (809 ETH).

Overall NFT market capitalization shrank nearly 5% to $7.7 billion, down from a $9.3 billion peak on ￰19￱ $1.6 billion drawdown highlights how quickly capital flees when ETH ￰20￱ sharp contrast between resilient CryptoPunks and sliding newer collections strengthens its appeal as a collateral ￰21￱ liquidity holds up even as broader NFT floors ￰22￱ investors, the sell-off signals that NFT blue chips remain high-beta ETH proxies, with only legacy projects like CryptoPunks showing the defensive value that makes them the safer long-term institutional bet.