Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin Rises, but Risk Appetite Remains Weak

AI Summary5 min read

TL;DR

Bitcoin rebounded slightly to around $89,900 but remains below recent highs, with market sentiment in 'extreme fear' and altcoins underperforming. Bitcoin dominance is rising as investors favor larger-cap assets over riskier altcoins.

Key Takeaways

  • Bitcoin rose from $88,000 to $89,900 but is still below the $94,300 peak after the Fed rate cut, indicating ongoing weakness.
  • Altcoins are underperforming, with over half of the top 100 tokens lower and the CD80 index down 0.77%, reflecting weak risk appetite.
  • Market sentiment has slipped into 'extreme fear,' with altcoin season indicators depressed and bitcoin dominance climbing to 58.4%.
  • Derivatives data shows mixed positioning, with bullish signals for some tokens like DOGE but bearish biases for others like ETH and negative funding rates for XLM, MNT, and HBAR.
  • Liquid staking tokens like LDO and ETHFI performed relatively well, while prediction markets are emerging as a potential mainstream tool despite regulatory hurdles.

Tags

BitcoinAltcoinsMarket SentimentCrypto DerivativesRisk Appetite
Spinning top toy (Ash from Modern Afflatus/Unsplash)
Market remains flat as sentiment falls further (Ash from Modern Afflatus/Unsplash)

What to know:

  • BTC rebounded from Sunday’s $88,000 low to around $89,900, though it remains well below the $94,300 it hit after the Fed’s 25 basis-point rate cut.
  • More than half of the top 100 tokens are lower over 24 hours, with the CoinDesk 20 up just 0.16% and the broader CD80 down 0.77%, underscoring altcoins' continuing underperformance.
  • Sentiment has slipped back into “extreme fear,” altcoin season indicators remain depressed, and bitcoin dominance continues to climb, reflecting investor preference for larger-cap assets.
  • BTC rebounded from Sunday’s $88,000 low to around $89,900, though it remains well below the $94,300 it hit after the Fed’s 25 basis-point rate cut.
  • More than half of the top 100 tokens are lower over 24 hours, with the CoinDesk 20 up just 0.16% and the broader CD80 down 0.77%, underscoring altcoins' continuing underperformance.
  • Sentiment has slipped back into “extreme fear,” altcoin season indicators remain depressed, and bitcoin dominance continues to climb, reflecting investor preference for larger-cap assets.

The crypto market began the week as it ended the last: little changed in the past 24 hours as sentiment slumped back into the "extreme fear" zone.

Bitcoin BTC$87,673.80 now trades at $89,900, rising from Sunday's low of $88,000 and continuing to show weakness after reaching a high of $94,300 after the Federal Reserve's 25 basis-point interest-rate cut last week.

Volatility across the altcoin market is also waning with a handful of tokens including ether ETH$3,041.12 and TRX$0.2816 rising by less than 2% over the past 24 hours, while more than half of the top 100 tokens are in the red over the same period.

The CoinDesk 20 (CD20) Index is up by 0.16% on Monday while the CoinDesk 80 (CD80), which is a broader basket of crypto tokens, is down by 0.77%, underscoring the weakness of the smaller, risker altcoins.

Derivatives positioning

  • DOGE, HYPE, SOL and ETH saw an increase in notional open interest (OI) over 24 hours while ZEC, BNB, AAVE, TRX and smaller coins witnessed capital outflows. OI in BTC is largely unchanged.
  • OI in DOGE futures rose to 10.80 billion DOGE, the highest since Nov. 20. alongside moderately positive funding rates. The combination points to bullish positioning.
  • As XRP threatens to dip below the long-held $2 support, OI has increased over 3%, with funding rates hovering close to zero/neutral. A breakdown could invite bears to take short bets, pushing funding rates into negative.
  • Speaking of funding rates, XLM, MNT and HBAR are seeing negative figures, pointing to dominance of shorts.
  • On Deribit, the BTC put skew has moderated at the front-end. In ETH's case, front-end puts are pricier than BTC, implying a net bearish bias on ETH/BTC pair.
  • Block flows featured BTC calendar spreads and ETH put spreads.

Token talk

  • The altcoin market underperformed bitcoin, ether ETH$3,041.12 and TRX$0.2816 over the past 24 hours with several tokens, including AERO, TAO, ZEC and SKY, falling as much as 4.5%.
  • One sector that performed well, or at least better than its counterparts, was liquid staking tokens: Lido (LDO) and ETHFI$0.8186 both posted gains of around 2%.
  • The ETHFI rise can be attributed to announcement that it is dishing out 10% in ETH cashback for those using the ether.fi card in a campaign it is calling "Ethmas."
  • CoinMarketCap's "altcoin season" indicator is at 19/100, slightly higher than last week's low of 16/100, but a far cry from September's high of 78/100.
  • This shows that investors still prefer the safety and relative consistency of bitcoin and other larger market cap tokens as opposed to more speculative assets that are associated with volatility.
  • CoinGlass data shows that bitcoin dominance has steadily risen in recent months, increasing from 56.8% in September to 58.4%. This shift has occurred alongside the release of thousands of new tokens, which historically has taken market share away from BTC.

  • As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
  • GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
  • Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
  • Citizens said prediction markets are shifting asset class from niche to emerging.
  • The bank argued that event contracts fix a key flaw in traditional finance by letting investors trade directly on inflation, elections, Fed moves and regulation.
  • While regulation and liquidity are hurdles, prediction markets are likely to evolve from retail-heavy speculation into a mainstream hedging and information tool that could reach multitrillion-dollar annual scale, the report said.

Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.

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