Bitcoin surged past the $80,690 mark during Asian trading hours, reaching its highest level since late January and marking a 5.3% weekly gain from the previous week's close at $79,000. According to CoinDesk, this milestone represents Bitcoin's strongest monthly performance of the year, driven by a combination of institutional demand, shrinking supply, and declining oil-driven inflation hedges. The latest data shows Bitcoin and Ethereum were up 4% and 5% respectively in 24 hours, marking significant momentum in the cryptocurrency market. This surge came despite ongoing geopolitical tensions, with CoinDesk noting that the move came even as broader crypto markets were mixed and macro risks persisted.
The broader crypto market is experiencing a significant rotation into altcoins, with the DeFi Select Index up 2.7% and tokens like ENA, ONDO, and TON posting strong gains. As reported by CoinDesk, the CoinMarketCap altcoin season indicator is at 41/100 showing neutral but warming sentiment following a multi-month downtrend. TON emerged as the top performing altcoin among the CoinDesk 100, rallying 8.1% since midnight UTC and 28% over the past 24 hours following an announcement from Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who said that Telegram will replace the Ton Foundation as the driving force behind the network. The CoinDesk 5 is the worst performer, notching only a 0.5% gain as investors appear to be rotating into more speculative bets as opposed to crypto majors.
The rally was supported by nearly $270 million in short liquidations, as reported by The Economic Times. Akshat Siddhant, Lead quant analyst at Mudrex, noted that this allowed Bitcoin to reclaim its bull market support band after three months. In the latest 24-hour period, Ethereum held steady at $2,370, down 0.1% but up 4.0% on the week, while among major altcoins, XRP slipped 0.9% to $1.40, Solana dropped 0.9% to $84.84, and BNB sat at $626. Among the major altcoins, Dogecoin gave back 1.0% to $0.1117 after last week's run, though it remains the standout on the seven-day tape at 12.4% as futures open interest continues at year-highs.
According to the CoinDCX Research Team as reported by The Economic Times, a potent mix of shrinking supply and robust institutional appetite has propelled Bitcoin toward the $80,000 milestone. This rally is underpinned by a seven-day streak of spot Bitcoin ETF inflows exceeding $335 million, while exchange reserves have plummeted to near all-time lows. Since the onset of the conflict, Bitcoin has gained over 20%, while gold has declined by nearly 13-14%, reflecting the continued impact of rate expectations on traditional non-yielding assets. The divergence highlights Bitcoin's evolving role in global portfolios, with the cryptocurrency benefiting from continued rate expectations on traditional assets.
Derivatives markets are showing increased activity with futures tied to Cardano's ADA seeing record participation, as open interest has surged more than 18% to 2.17 billion tokens, surpassing the previous peak from January. According to CoinDesk, despite this buildup, positioning in ADA does not appear excessively overheated with perpetual funding rates running at an annualized 9%, which signals bullish sentiment but not extreme leverage. TON shows the strongest cumulative volume delta among the top 30 cryptocurrencies, pointing to aggressive buying pressure, though funding rates remain slightly negative. However, a broader caution signal emerges as the OI-adjusted 24-hour cumulative volume delta remains negative for Bitcoin and most major tokens, with the exception of ADA, TON and M, indicating that the rally is not being strongly supported by aggressive derivatives buying.
